PACE: the release of political prisoners and a moratorium on the death penalty are the obligatory per-requisites for the beginning of a dialogue with Minsk
The release of political prisoners and
the introduction of a moratorium on the death penalty in Belarus are
the obligatory conditions for the dialogue of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) with the Belarusian
authorities. This is stated in the statement of the PACE Committee on
Political Affairs and Democracy, published on 3 October on the site
of the Assembly.
The document notes that after the 2 October
hearing on the situation in Belarus, which was attended by the editor
of charter97.org Natallia Radzina and the deputy head of the movement
"For Freedom" Ales Lahvinets , the committee is concerned
about the "conditions of detention of political prisoners and
reports of abuse, torture and compulsory psychiatric treatment".
"
The Committee once again urges the Government to immediately and
unconditionally release 11 political prisoners who are still in
prison," reads the statement.
The Committee also welcomes
the decision of the PACE to award the Prize to Vaclav Havel to the
well-known Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, who is
serving a prison term in Belarus.
The statement stressed that
if the PACE will begin a dialogue with Belarus, it necessarily must
involve the civil society, which must also participate in the
preparation of the action plan of the Council of Europe with regard
to Belarus.
