Sviatlana Tsihanouskaya: “Yesterday, the regime crossed yet another line: Dzmitry Layeuski was sentenced to three years in prison. Three years in prison for comments to independent media made five years ago.
Dzmitry is an incredibly courageous person and a professional lawyer. Back in 2011–2012, he defended Ales Bialiatski — and even then, the security forces put so much pressure on him that he had to suspend his legal practice for several years.
In 2020, he was not afraid to defend Viktar Babaryka and Maksim Znak, whom the regime considered among the “most dangerous”. In 2021, Dzmitry was first reprimanded for a Facebook post criticizing changes to the legislation on the legal profession, and in July, he was expelled from the bar association — simply for doing his job and defending Viktar Babaryka.
He made a principled decision to stay at home, in Belarus, because it is his country. Dzmitry always acted strictly within the law, down to the last letter — but in today’s Belarus, unfortunately, the law no longer means anything to those who have seized power.
I want to express my heartfelt support to Dzmitry and his family. We will certainly inform our international partners about this sentence. It should not be the case that while some people are released, others are taken hostage to replace them”.
