Andrei Sannikov: Political Prisoners Should Be Protected From Day One
1- 10.12.2025, 9:42
- 1,790
Human rights activists are playing a very dangerous game with the regime.
At the General Assembly of the World Freedom Congress in Berlin, the leader of the civil campaign "European Belarus" Andrei Sannikov was elected ombudsman of this global organization, which unites fighters against dictatorships around the world.
On the eve of International Human Rights Day, which is celebrated today, December 10, Charter97.org spoke with the opposition politician about how to defend fundamental freedoms in the modern world:
- Indeed, I was elected to the Executive Committee, which is the highest governing body of the World Freedom Congress. And then, when the Executive Committee was assigning responsibilities, I was elected as an Ombudsman.An ombudsman is supposed to protect the rights of participants in an organization or community. But the Ombudsman's functions in Congress are not limited to this: I will be dealing with the violation of the rights of members of Congress not only in countries with authoritarian regimes, whose representatives have united in this organization. It is a lot of work, and it is very demanding. I am, of course, grateful for your trust, but I realize that there may be some difficult situations, both political and moral. In order to prevent misunderstandings, I will say at once that I do this pro bono, which means without remuneration.
- One of the initiatives of the Congress is to recognize prisoners of dictatorships as political prisoners, similar to Amnesty International and other human rights structures. What will this procedure look like and how will the approach of the World Freedom Congress differ from existing methods?
- This was my proposal. It is dictated by the fact that Amnesty in many cases makes politicized negative decisions on the status of prisoner of conscience or political prisoner.
The case of Alexei Navalny is quite well known, when Amnesty decided to deprive him of the status of political prisoner because of information about his xenophobic statements. But Navalny was already behind bars, a prisoner of Putin, and this decision only increased the pressure on him. Then they restored this status and even tweaked something, but only in the sense that "we should check rumors".
We face this in Belarus, too, when Amnesty refused to recognize political prisoners.
This was the first argument: the Congress is an organization consisting of political prisoners, former political prisoners, dissidents, freedom fighters. Therefore, we have the right and obligation to protect human rights, including the status of political prisoners.
.jpg)
The second serious argument: in Belarus, the practice of human rights organizations was not to recognize arrested political prisoners before the trial. There were quite a lot of such cases. That is why the wording of the Congress is different - it is short and emphasizes that no judicial prosecution under a dictatorship can justify arbitrary detentions and prison terms. Here's what it says:
The definition of "political prisoner" applies regardless of the articles or provisions of the penal code used to justify detention or arrest. The status shall be granted immediately after confirmation of reliable information about the political motivation of the deprivation of liberty and shall remain in force until the termination of all repressions against this person.
- Indeed, in Belarus, the current mechanism of recognition of political prisoners, which is managed by the Human Rights Center "Viasna", has been seriously criticized: it is enough to recall the egregious cases when Polina Sharendo-Panasiuk or Mikalai Autukhovich were refused to be recognized as political prisoners. How do you think the approach should be changed to prevent such injustices from happening again? On Nikolai Autukhovich I constantly talked to human rights activists, including the Human Rights Center "Viasna". And they stubbornly stood on the fact that they recognize him as a political prisoner only after the trial. Why after the trial? What is the logic here? A person should be defended immediately.
Avtukhovich is known as a consistent fighter against the regime. What's not clear here? He was imprisoned for political reasons - so he should be defended from the first day. Because the refusal to grant him the status of a political prisoner is a signal to the guards to mock him, and they take advantage of it. There is an order from the DNI, from the Gebnya, from Lukashenko to exert pressure. They exert pressure and mock, saying: "You're not even a political prisoner, see? You are a criminal, as it is written down."
- Human rights activists of "Viasna" name a figure of 1200 political prisoners in Belarus. How close to reality is this estimate?
- This is a despicable figure. It is far from reality, and I constantly talk about it. If you compare the official statistics of the Interior Ministry - the number of arrests, trials, detainees - it becomes clear that the number of political prisoners is much higher than 1200.Why is the figure mean? Because now, under Trump's pressure, the talk is about releasing prisoners of conscience. Even Trump is talking about 1,300 and 1,400. Let's say they are released. What about the rest of them? A few thousand more who were not recognized as political prisoners remain behind bars. How is this possible? Why do human rights defenders assume such responsibility? They become accomplices to crimes. I do not deny the tremendous work they do, collecting information about political prisoners. But in this matter they play a very dangerous game with the regime, and it does not help to protect the rights of people in detention.
- Lukashenko is forced to release hostages - many of them are released after a full term, but they are actually abandoned, the assistance of funds is limited, it does not reach them. What priority steps are needed to systematically support people who have passed through the regime's prisons, and how can the international community get involved?
- In my opinion, everything is clear to everyone: almost all money flows under the banner of democracy assistance in Belarus are controlled by a corrupt group linked to Tikhanovskaya's office. This group today acts as a branch of Lukashek's administration in Europe. With the help of associates from foundations, they deprive the Belarusian resistance movement of support and through their projects they actively help to put innocent people in jail in Belarus. As long as this entity, which absorbs millions of dollars, exists, only those political prisoners who are needed for PR will receive help, and the number of "jailing" will grow
So, let's stay in solidarity, help people, trust our money only to those whom we believe.
Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims
You can contact us by the e-mail charter97@gmail.com
