MEPs Call On Borrell To Demand Immediate Release Of Sevyarynets, Afnahel, European Belarus Activists

The initiator of the appeal was the MEP from Slovakia Ivan Štefanec.

The MEPs called on the head of the EU diplomacy to show solidarity with the activists of the European Belarus. An official letter with an appeal to respond to the verdict to Pavel Sevyarynets and the activists of the European Belarus is addressed to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

A copy of the letter is at the disposal of the editorial staff of the Charter97.org website. The initiator of the appeal was the MEP from Slovakia Ivan Štefanec. The initiative was supported by the former Prime Minister of Lithuania Andrius Kubilius and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski. In total, 26 members of the European Parliament signed the appeal.

We are publishing the full text of the letter of MEPs to Josep Borrell.

Dear High Representative Borrell Fontelles,

We, the undersigned members of the European Parliament, would like to address you with a request to pay increased attention to pro-democracy prisoners in Belarus. Highly respecting all women and men who can resist authoritarian rule, it is unacceptable that the Belarusian opposition is suffering in this way. We hope that our action in the European Union can make a difference on how individual political prisoners are being treated. We would ask you to demand immediate release of opposition leaders, activists and bloggers:

Pavel Sevyarynets, co-chairman of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party,

Iryna Shchasnaya, civil activist

Maksim Vinyarski, activist of the European Belarus civil campaign

Yauhen Afnahel, activist of the European Belarus civil campaign

Andrey Voynich, activist of the European Belarus civil campaign

Paval Yukhnevich, activist of the European Belarus civil campaign

Dzmitry Kazlou, activist of the European Belarus civil campaign.

They received prison sentences ranging from four to seven years in Mahiliou Regional Court on May 25, 2021. The trials took place behind closed doors without the presence of the public, the media or close relatives! The European Union needs to show solidarity with these brave Belarusian citizens. Such crimes cannot go unpunished and unnoticed. The behaviour of the Belarusian regime towards these innocent people cannot remain unaddressed. This act needs a response, and the European Union needs to send a clear signal that it will not tolerate this type of behaviour.

On May 25, judge Iryna Lanchava sentenced Pavel Sevyarynets, co-chairman of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, as well as participants of the European Belarus civil campaign Yauhen Afnahel and Andrei Voynich, to 7 years of imprisonment in a reinforced security colony. Activist of the European Belarus Maksim Vinyarsky and the host of the YouTube channel “Gray Cat” Dzmitry Kazlou were sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment in a reinforced security colony. Iriya Shchasnaya, editor of the Telegram channel My Country Belarus, was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony.