The BYSOL foundation has issued a statement in connection with the verdicts in the so-called BYSOL case.
Four people were sentenced to between two and three years in prison on charges of “participation in an extremist formation.” The court found that they had acted as BYSOL “couriers” in Belarus. “The ‘couriers’ were tasked with receiving and transferring funds to other members of the formation and distributing them for the needs of participants in illegal protest and extremist activities,” the Minsk Prosecutor’s Office said.
BYSOL stated that the foundation has no “couriers” in Belarus.
“The BYSOL foundation has never had a ‘courier network’ in Belarus. BYSOL does not create underground structures, does not form ‘groups’ inside the country and does not organise the transfer of cash funds through individuals.
Statements about the existence of an ‘organised BYSOL group’ with ‘courier’ functions, the distribution of cash and the observance of ‘secrecy’ do not correspond to reality and have nothing to do with the foundation’s actual activities,” the statement said.
The foundation also reminded that transfers to the personal accounts of citizens in Belarus from organisations recognised as “extremist” in Belarus are associated with risks for recipients. Such transfers may be used by the authorities as grounds for prosecution.
