Human rights activists demand to stop the persecution Revyako

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders condemns pressure on Tatyana Revyako.

The Observatory, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Belarus.

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the ongoing harassment of Ms. Tatsiana Revyaka, Board member of the Human Rights Centre “Viasna” and member of the Belarusian Human Rights House in exile.

According to the information received, on September 18, 2012, Ms. Revyaka received a notification from the Tax Inspection of Minsk Pershamaiski District stating that she was “obliged to submit a declaration of income and property not later than October 3, 2012 for the period of 2004-2010, in pursuance of Article 12 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus 'On Declaration of Income and Property by Individuals'”.

The Observatory strongly condemns this new act of harassment against Ms. Revyaka (see background information), which is part of a more general campaign of harassment against members of Viasna, since it seems to merely aim at impeding their legitimate human rights activities.

The Observatory is all the more concerned at this latest development, that the authorities have been increasing tax-related harassment against some human rights defenders in Belarus, by depicting them as tax offenders. In 2011, they also adopted a set of provisions intended to facilitate the criminalisation of legitimate human rights activities in the country in a context where the right to freedom of association is regularly trampled. Tax-related harassment has particularly intensified after Mr. Ales Bialiatski, Vice-President of the FIDH and President of Viasna, was sentenced to four and a half years' imprisonment and to heavy fines under abusive charges of alleged large-scale tax fraud.