US will not bargain for political prisoners

As said by the US diplomat, the courts in the mass riots cases have become one more step towards self-isolation of Belarus.

The US government will not bargain with Alyaksandr Lukashenka for political prisoners convicted in connection with a post-election protest that was staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010, US Charge d’Affaires Michael Scanlan said in an interview with BelaPAN.

He stressed that the US position on the issue “is quite clear—free all political prisoners and drop all charges and overturn all convictions.”

Commenting on the statement of Alyaksandr Lukashenka about a possibility to release those imprisoned over December 19 events, Mr. Scanlan said: “First of all, as far as I understand, when Lukashenka referred to “so-called political prisoners”, he only meant ex-presidential candidates. However, when we talk about political prisoners in Belarus, we mean the approximately 50 people against whom charges were brought in connection with the events on December 19. Most of whom, unfortunately, have already been convicted.”

Mr Scanlan reminded about President Barack Obama’s statement on May 27, who said that the US government would pursue new sanctions against select Belarusian state-owned enterprises in addition to its sanctions announced on January 31. these measures are targeted against persons responsible for repressions.

“Our policy is, has been, and will remain consistent”, Mr. Scanlan stressed.

As said by the diplomat, the trials in the cases on “mass riots” have become one more step towards self-isolation of Belarus.

These trials are politically motivated, and they should not have happened to be at all, Nr Scanlan underlined. The US, the EU and Russia publicly urged to release the prisoners immediately and to freeing from charges all those who had been detained in connection with December 19 events. He said that the US deeply regrets that political prisoners in Belarus are a reality.

As US Charge d’Affaires believes, there is a danger that in the future decent presidential contenders would opt not to run in the election, knowing that it could bring them into prison.

Scanlan was struck by huge discrepancy in testimony from witnesses, which was in favour of defendants, and verdicts, in which they were found guilty. For instance, many policemen who were testifying, could not even identify the defendants. This inconsistency has not been reflected in state-run media. Coverage of the trials in state-run media was not objective, the diplomat stressed.

Meanwhile, on June 3 at consultations to discuss optimization of the work of general jurisdiction courts, Alyaksandr Lukashenka (Lukashenko) stated: the legal trials over organisers and participants of mass riots in Minsk on December 19 had been held in full conformity with the law, and the guilty persons are paying the due penalty.

“Despite colossal pressure from the outside, Belarusian judges tried the organizers of the 19 December mass riots and pogromists of the Seat of Government in an able and competent manner, in full compliance with the law,” Lukashenka underlined.