German ombudsman banned entry to Belarus

The Belarusian authorities denied entry to Belarus for Germany’s human rights commissioner Markus Loening.

The information was spread by the German MFA, Radio Svaboda reports with a link to Associated Press.

“I very much regret that I am not welcome in Minsk,” the ombudsman noted. According to him, the German government will continue to apply efforts to promote human rights in Belarus.

According to the information from the MFA, Loening planned to pay a three-day visit to Minsk to meet with human rights activists and hand over a letter from German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Westerwelle called in the letter to solve certain criminal cases, supportingly against political prisoners, on “humanitarian grounds”.

Loening also planned to visit Viasna human rights head Ales Byalyatski, who was sentenced to 4.5-year imprisonment for alleged tax fraud.

Markus Loening has expressed his support for the Belarusian democratic forces and called to immediately release and rehabilitate all political prisoners.