European Liberals and Democrats appealed to the Belarusian authorities

The ALDE-PACE is dismayed with the shameful practice of preventing civil activists and political opponents from leaving the country.

Since the beginning of March, 16 opposition leaders, human rights defenders and independent journalists have been stopped at the borders and banned the exit from the country on openly fallacious grounds (non existent legal suits, alleged conscription dodging by persons much older than the conscription age, etc...).

In spite of the official claims that no “black lists” exist, the systematic character of this restrictive practice clearly demonstrates that the Belarusian authorities use their own citizens as hostages in their confrontation with the EU.

We remind that practices restricting a country’s own citizens’ travel freedom without sufficient legal grounds are incompatible with European democracy standards and remind us of policies used by the most undemocratic regimes.

We call on the Belarusian authorities to refrain from using such political instruments and stop continuous harassment of political opponents and civil society;

We also call on the Russian authorities to do all possible under the terms of the agreements on free movement of persons between the two States to prevent such repressions in the name of the European Convention on Human Rights;

We call on the victims of such repressive measures to use all available legal instruments to prove in courts the legal nihilism of the responsible Belarusian state organs;

Finally, we welcome the release of Mr Andrey Sannikov, former presidential candidate, and his campaign aid Mr Dmitri Bondarenko, but remind that political prisoners still remain in Belarus, and reiterate our demand that all of them be unconditionally released and rehabilitated.