Lukashenka And 30 His Officials Named Non Grata Persons In EU :: Charter'97 :: News

On Monday the European Union has officially introduced sanctions against the Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka and 30 high-ranking officials. All of them are non grata persons in the EU countries.

This decision was passed by the EU Council at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the union`s 25 member states. Visa ban is introduced for a year, and can be prolonged later. The head of the Belarusian KGB, Justice Minister, Prosecutor General, the Chairman of the lower chamber of “parliament”, the head of the presidential staff, the head of the Central Electoral Committee and others were entered in the list.

Earlier the deputies of the EU offered to expand the list to several hundreds of names, but this proposal is still to be considered.

Up till now, except Lukashenka, the Internal Affairs Minister Uladzimir Navumau, the Security Council Secretary Viktar Shejman, special tasks police regiment commander Yury Padabed and the SOBR Commander Dzmitry Paulichenka were among the non grata persons banned from entering the EU.

As we have informed, according to the EU and OSCE, elections held on March 19 in Belarus fell short of international democratic norms.