Павел Латушко. Фото: t.me/CabinetBelarus
Pavel Latushka addressed a meeting of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
He focused attention on the continuing repression in Belarus and its scale. According to the Viasna Human Rights Centre, at least 9,691 people have faced criminal prosecution for political reasons. At least 8,400 people have been convicted. Latushka stressed that the conveyor belt of repression does not stop for a single day.
He also separately informed the committee about the results of the elections to the Coordination Council.
“The regime created an atmosphere of fear among Belarusians. All lists participating in the elections were designated as extremist, just as the Coordination Council itself was declared an extremist organisation. The regime staged fake detentions of Belarusian citizens inside the country allegedly for participating in the elections, and relatives of election candidates were subjected to repression in order to force them to withdraw from the campaign. A large-scale campaign of discreditation and disinformation was organised both against the Coordination Council itself and against the elections in general.
We faced DDoS attacks unprecedented in scale. During the elections, more than 24 billion requests were made to the Coordination Council’s electronic voting platform, generating around 68 terabytes of malicious traffic,” Pavel Latushka said.
He outlined the priorities under which the Coordination Council delegation will continue to work in PACE. These include lobbying for Council of Europe member states to join the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the situation in Belarus. Belarusian representatives will focus on transnational repression, support the work of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, and seek to hold Lukashenka accountable within the tribunal’s investigation. Another priority for the delegates is supporting political prisoners and implementing PACE recommendations concerning the legalisation of Belarusians abroad.