Four Years Ago, Ales Bialiatski And His Colleagues Were Detained
- 14.07.2025, 16:50
A solidarity action was held in Vilnius.
On July 14, the action of "Viasna" took place in the center of Vilnius - on the fourth anniversary of the detention of their associates and colleagues: Ales Bialiatski, Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich. The action was attended by representatives of the Human Rights Center "Viasna", BAJ, Belarusian lawyers, human rights activists and simply not indifferent people, reports "Salidarnasts".
Participants of the picket came out with posters of politically imprisoned human rights defenders, in addition to the sound recording about the fate of the chairman of "Viasna" and Nobel laureate Ales Beliatski, his deputy Valentin Stefanovich, lawyer of the organization Vladimir Labkovich and coordinator of the volunteer service Marfa Rabkova.
We would like to recall that on July 14, 2021, searches came to Bialiatski, Stefanovich and Labkovich, as well as other human rights defenders from "Viasna". The human rights defenders were accused of "smuggling" and "financing of group actions that grossly violate public order."
The Viasna activists were later sentenced to harsh terms: Bialiatski to 10 years in prison, Stefanovich to 9, and Labkovich to 7. None of them pleaded guilty to any of the charges against them. Later, the human rights defenders were added to the "list of extremists".
Lawyer and human rights defender of "Viasna" Pavel Sapelko noted:
- Today is another occasion for us to remind the public that three of our colleagues: Bialiatski, Stefanovich and Labkovich are in captivity. Marfa Rabkova was detained earlier - she has been behind bars for almost five years.
According to the lawyer, the authorities managed to take revenge on these people for their active human rights activities in Belarus. However, if they think that this way they can stop the work of the human rights community, it is not so.
Human rights activist Elena Masliukova noted that the regime "holds more than 1200 people hostage":
- But not only them, but the whole Belarus. And we are here today not only for our siblings and colleagues, but also for all Belarusians.
Throughout the action, the loudspeaker sounded "Freedom to "Viasna", freedom to political prisoners!".