By: Domen Mezeg / Nova24TV
Presidential candidate and member of parliament Anže Logar joined the noble initiative of sponsorship for Belarusian political prisoners. Among the initiators are also two representatives of the German Bundestag. It is a solidarity action of the human rights partnership Libereco called #WeStandBYyou.
Former Foreign Minister and Member of Parliament Anže Logar joined the project of sponsoring Belarusian political prisoners. Each of the participants of the campaign also took on the sponsorship of a concrete political prisoner, Logar for Vatslav Areško. He is a political scientist, public figure, and activist of the Belarusian Union of Workers of the Radio Electric Industry (REM).
He was detained on April 19th, 2022, and has not yet been charged. Logar: “His detention is part of a large-scale attack on the independent trade union movement in Belarus. Mr. Areško and several of his fellow union activists were arbitrarily detained after Belarusian authorities labelled REM an extremist group, banned its activities and closed it down following a decision by a Belarusian court.”
He believes that the detention of union activists and the banning of REM is clearly politically motivated and goes against the rights of free expression, peaceful assembly and association, and the rights of workers to organise into free and independent trade unions. “I would like to express my solidarity with Mr. Areško and call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release him and his colleagues and to respect the rights to free expression, assembly and association.”
Logar: “Human and civil rights are non-negotiable”
As Logar also believes, these and other human and civil rights cannot be negotiated. At the same time, political repression in Belarus must stop. Along with Logar, two members of the German parliament (Bundestag) also took up sponsorship. Paula Piechotta took over as a sponsor for Tatjana Kouzina, who is a board member and co-founder of the Sympa School of Young Managers of Public Administration.
She has been in custody since June 28th, 2021. Misbah Khan took over as a sponsor for Aleh Barazn, an activist of the group “State for life” and for Svetlana Tihanovska’s team. He has been detained several times, but now since April 13th, 2021 he is a political prisoner due to alleged “illegal traffic in illegal drugs without the intention of selling them”.