The chairman of the center Ales Byalacki and seven his colleagues, Uladzimir Labkovich, Valiancin Stefanovich, Aleh Zhlutka, Uladzimir Velichkin, Mikola Limianouski, Zmitser Salaujou and Alyaksei Kolchyn have to pay penalty, as decided by the court of Leninski District. All the rights’ defenders, except for Uladzimir Labkovich, must pay a fine of 5 basic payments (82, 500 000 rubles). Labkovich has been fined for 10 basic payments (165, 000, 000).

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Freimut Duve, the person in charge of monitoring freedom of speech in the OSCE, called Belarus “a European exception” and a country, where “a relapse of dictatorship” can be observed, in his yesterday’s interview to “Berliner Zeitung”.

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Today at 9.30 at Minsk municipal court, Dunin Martinkevich Str., the hearings on the suit initiated by the Ministry of Justice against the Independent Association of Legal Research are scheduled.

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As Sviatlana Haevskaya, a member of the parents’ committee, said to BelaPAN, the education of the students is carried out in the form of self-education, as well as consultations with teachers, who have been fired as the result of the closure of the National State Lyceum of the Humanities.

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Alyaksandar Buhvostau, the chairman of the professional union of the automobile and agriculture machinery construction, received an official response from Minsk Municipal Executive Committee regarding his request for forming a picket line on October 30.

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The representatives of Jewish organizations are going to appeal to the Office of Public Persecution of Belarus and to the Committee of the Religious and National Affairs of the Ministers’ Council due to “the kindling of disagreement between nations at Kazaks’ Congress,” said Jakau Basin, the director of the Belarusian Office of the Association of the Committees in Support of the Jews from former USSR.

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Amnesty International today condemned the closure by the Belarusian authorities of one of Belarus’ most prominent human rights organization, «Spring», as a further attempt to suppress what remains of the country’s human rights community. "Throughout 2003 human rights defenders in Belarus have faced a heightened campaign of harassment and intimidation by the authorities aimed at silencing them. «Spring» was yet another human rights organization to fall victim to this deplorable campaign yesterday," Amnesty International stated.

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PERMANENT COUNCIL No. 471, 23 October 2003
In recent months, the EU has frequently expressed its concern at the continued repression of Civil Society and free media in Belarus, in violation of OSCE commitments. We deeply regret to note that this repression continues. The EU has raised the cases of several NGOs that have faced varying degrees of pressure from the Belarusian authorities. In our statement of 5 September, the EU urged Belarus in the strongest possible terms to reverse the restrictive measures taken against members of Civil Society.

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