Human Rights Groups Recognise 13 More People as Political Prisoners

Belarusian human rights organisations have issued a joint statement recognising 13 people as political prisoners.

Those recognised as political prisoners are Aksana Valvachova, Yury Dashkevich, Henadz Karneyavets, Dzmitry Miaziak, Kiryl Slivets,  Ivan Litvin, Ales Masiuk, Pavel Sevastsyan, Viktar Marchyk, Vitalina Mikhalenia, Andrei Piechan, Andrei Harbanau and Vadzim Bahdanau.

According to the statement, the individuals were convicted under articles covering insults against Aliaksandr Lukashenka and public officials, facilitating extremist activity and other provisions that Belarusian authorities use for politically motivated prosecutions.

The human rights organisations called for the release of these individuals, as well as all political prisoners, and for an end to repression in the country.