Amnesty International: There are no changes in Belarus

The influential international human rights watchdog has released its 2012 report.

It is stated in the report that political prisoners still remain in Belarus (5 people are named - Mikalaj Statkevich, Pavel Sevyarynets, Edward Lobau and Zmitser Dashkevich, Ales Byalyatski). Some people received additional prison terms, while civil society activists face violations of their rights to freedoms of speech, assembly and associations.

It is also stated in the report that Belarusian human rights defenders faced various forms of harassment last year, including a the ban to leave Belarus. In 2012, 15 human rights defenders, journalists and opposition activists were sentenced to administrative detentions for swearing in public places, Radio Liberty reports.

Three people in our country were executed. The authors of the report state that Minsk metro blast convicts Uladzislau Kavalyou and Dzmitry Kanavalau were executed in March 2012, although there was an enquiry of the UN Human Rights Committee not to execute the sentence until they considered the case. There were serious doubts in the court being fair in this case, the document says.