IIHF may consider removing World Championship from Minsk

A congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation has opened in Stockholm, at which the issue may be raised of holding the World Championship 2014 in Minsk.

We would remind that many European politicians and human rights organizations repeatedly spoke against holding the world championship in Minsk.

On the eve of the IIHF congress parliament members from Denmark and Sweden demanded the cancellation of the Ice Hockey World Championship in Belarus.

They called upon the International Ice Hockey Federation to recall the decision of holding the competition in Minsk at the congress.

“Belarus is Europe’s last dictatorship and the only country where death penalties keep being used. Trials are arbitrary, tortures are used in prisons, the respect to basic human rights is absent in the country. From the very beginning we have been critical to the fact that Belarus and its dictator Lukashenka will have an opportunity next year to host this important event. It all looks like it is a sporting competition. But actually its organization is the issue of political prestige for Lukashenka. If the world agrees on holding the World Championship in Belarus, it will mean it agrees with the repressions, that the regime carries out against the country’s population”, - the statement of the parliamentarians said.

Moreover, some countries threatened to boycott the championship, in case it is held in Minsk, because of the repressions carried out by Belarusian authorities.