EU called upon Belarus to immediately stop arrests and release public activists

The European Union is concerned about the harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention of dozens of representatives of civil society on the threshold of the World Ice Hockey Championship.

"We are concerned about the harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention of several dozens of representatives of civil society and opposition organizations in the run up to the World Ice Hockey Championship in Belarus”, says the statement issued on May 16 by the EEAS Spokesperson on the arbitrary detentions of more than 30 civil society and political activists in Belarus.

“We condemn the use of administrative detention by the Belarusian authorities as an instrument aimed at creating pressure, fear and uncertainty among the young generation of people in Belarus”, marks the document.

The EU has urged the authorities of Belarus “to immediately stop these actions and to release all those unjustly detained, dropping all charges against them”, as well as immediately and unconditional release and rehabilitate all political prisoners.

“The EU's readiness to further develop relations with Belarus remains conditional on concrete steps in Belarus towards democracy, human rights and the rule of law", emphasized the statement.

As  EuroBelarus Information Service has earlier reported,  chain of preventive detentions swamped Belarus on the eve of the World Ice Hockey Championship. All in all about 30 opposition and social activists were arrested, most of them – preventively.