Human rights defenders recognize blogger Zmitser Kazlou political prisoner

The human rights defend­ers based their deci­sion on pre­vi­ous­ly state­ments of the Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty of 1, 9 and 11 June  that rec­og­nized the defen­dants in «Tikhanouski’s case» polit­i­cal pris­on­ers.

The Belaru­sian human rights defend­ers demand to release Zmitser Kazlou imme­di­ate­ly and to drop crim­i­nal charges against him.

Zmitser Kazlou   was arrest­ed on June 10, togeth­er with activists of Euro­pean Belarus Art­siom Char­ni­ak and Mikhail Ban­daren­ka . The next day he was sen­tenced to 20 days in jail and was expect­ed to be released on 30 June. But he con­tin­ues to remain behind bars. The blog­ger was trans­ferred to the pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter on Volo­dars­ki street. .

At present 17 peo­ple already are in cus­tody pros­e­cut­ed under Art. 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code. These are blog­gers Siarhei Tsikhanous­ki, Uladz­imir Niaron­s­ki , Siarhei Pia­trukhin , Alexan­der Kabanau , Uladz­imir Tsy­hanovich, Zmitser Kazlou, Ihar Losik ,   detained after the inci­dent in Hrod­na Zmitser Fur­manau, Viarhili Ushak, Art­siom Sakau, Alexan­der Ara­novich, Uladz­imir Navu­mik, Vasil Babrous­ki, Yauhen Raznichen­ka, Uladz­imir Kni­ha, Andrei Novikoфг , politi­cian Miko­la Statke­vich . 15 of them are rec­og­nized as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers.

Repressions against journalists in Belarus, 2020 (chart)

Bloggers Tsyhanovich and Kabanau recognized as political prisoners

STATEMENT: BAJ outraged at arrest of bloggers, and calls on the authorities to abide by international standards and obligations