Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “On April 26, the jailed former presidential hopeful in Belarus, Viktar Babaryka, was transferred from a prison colony to a hospital and is undergoing surgery. Independent media reports indicate that he was taken to the hospital with traces of beatings. His lawyers and family members are denied information or contact with him.
This is not an isolated incident. Information about political prisoners is kept in secrecy. There is evidence that prisoners are kept in punishment cells for months and subjected to both psychological and physical violence. Proper medical aid is being denied.
In this situation, we demand that independent medical professionals be allowed to visit Viktar Babaryka, Maria Kalesnikava and other political prisoners currently in need of medical assistance.
- We demand that the regime allows diplomats and representatives from international organizations, including the OSCE, access to political prisoners in order to assess the conditions in which they are kept and what emergency aid they need.
- We call on the Belarusian authorities to comply with the law of Belarus and to provide political prisoners with the right to due process, while also allowing Belarusian attorneys to carry out their professional duties without hindrance.
- We condemn the violence and torture in Belarusian prisons, violations of human rights of political prisoners, their families, and legal representatives, as well as persecution for political reasons and punishment for political views and beliefs.
- We believe that the only possible way out of the crisis is the immediate release of all political prisoners with the provision of rehabilitation for them and their families.
We remind you that there are currently more than 1,500 political prisoners in Belarus according to human rights defenders, and ten of thousands more have gone through detention since 2020 in the most inhuman conditions”.
