OSCE Ambassador Urged to Visit Andrei Kim in Prison

The leader of the United Civil party Anatol Lyabedzka and young activists met Head of the OSCE Office in Minsk Ambassador Hans Jochen Schmid on March 6.

The occasion for the meeting was a written address of Anatol Lyabedzka to the OSCE office. He brought up an issue of creation of a black list of persons for whom leaving Belarus is prohibited. The politician addressed the Ambassador with a request to get message across to all OSCE members.

Young activists Mikhail Kryvau, Uladzimir Syarheeu and Mikhail Pashkevich, who have been charged under a criminal case opened by a prosecutor’s office for their participation in a protest rally on January 10, sent a written address. They have given a political and legal treatment to the criminal case and invited attention to the situation with human rights in Belarus.

“We do not have the same views on all issues with the OSCE Head of Office,” Anato Lyabedzka noted. “Hans Jochen Schmid stressed that he always have to listen to the two sides and study the situation carefully. His experience of work in post-Soviet states and in other countries says that this approach is the most correct and balanced”.

Belarusian participants of the meeting made a strong appeal for visiting the young activist Andrei Kim in remand prison, and to visit Akrestsin Street detention center in order to see the conditions in which the arrested are kept. Anatol Lyabedzka invited Hans Jochen Schmid to the court over applicants for holding the Europe4an March on March 11. Yong activists invited him to the trial for participation in the rally on January 10.

The Ambassador has also received the proposal of the UCP to hold a meeting with co-chairmen of the United Democratic Forces and discuss the imminent election campaign in Belarus.