Belarus: EU should tighten sanctions against Minsk if the humanitarian situation of political prisoners doesn’t improve

The Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament calls on the Lukashenka regime to end the spiral of violence, torture, repression and propaganda against dissenting voices and perceived critics, by releasing immediately and unconditionally all political prisoners.

The humanitarian situation is extremely worrying; in the case of many of those jailed there is no information available concerning their mental and physical health.

In particular, the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Mikalai Stakevich, has been deprived of essential medicines and for more than 3 years he has been kept in solitary confinement and his family has no information about him for more than 4 months. At the same time, European Belarus Civil Campaign activist, Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, is being subjected to repeated torture in Penal Colony 24 in Zarechcha, Gomel region. In the last 10 months, Palina spent more than 200 days in a punishment cell, notorious for torturous conditions.

In a report on EU relations with Belarus, adopted by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Renew Europe condemned in the strongest terms the unabated repression and systematic human rights violations continuously committed by the regime of dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka against its own people and calls for tightening sanctions against the regime, if the situation doesn’t improve.

Renew Europe MEP, Petras Auštrevičius (Lithuanian Liberal Movement), the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur on Belarus, said:

“Lukashenka's authoritarian regime persistently oppresses, abuses, and unjustly imprisons peaceful Belarusian citizens. This policy of systematically suppressing critical thinking individuals, political opposition and civil society organizations is fundamentally incompatible with the core principles of humanity. Renew Europe remains firmly committed to expressing solidarity with the Belarusian nation, which strives relentlessly to establish a democratic and independent Belarus. We wholeheartedly pledge to support their righteous pursuits.”