Human rights fighters urge to stop arbitrary arrests of Pavel Vinahradau and other activists

The 15-day preventive arbitrary arrest of the activist on October 9, 2014, on the eve of the summit of the CIS countries and the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Minsk was the last straw.

Due to the aggravation of the problem of arbitrary detentions and arrests of opposition activists, Belarusan human rights activists have announced a human rights campaign on this issue.

The press conference arranged to announce the start of the campaign was held on October 15 in Minsk. The conference was attended by the deputy head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Valiantsin Stefanovich, an expert on the prison system Pavel Sapelka, as well as Maksim Viniarski, an activist holding a record on the number of days spent under administrative arrest this year is expected as well.

In relation to the problem of arbitrary detentions the international Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Human Rights Center "Viasna" protest and outrage over the illegal actions of the Belarusian authorities in respect to the opposition activist Pavel Vinahradau.

The basis for the latest court verdict against Pavel Vinahradau was testimonies of the police officers about alleged hooligan actions committed by the activist.

As spring96.org informs, this is not the first case of arbitrary arrest and detention of Pavel Vinahradau by the Belarusian law enforcement agencies. Pavel is regularly subjected to such detention and arrest on the eve of various social and political events in the country. Over the last 10 months he was kept in prison for a total of 50 days.

According to Mr. Vinahradau, he is regularly threatened with criminal harassment and physical violence in order to force him to stop his peaceful activities and expression of views and protest, as well as to leave the city of Minsk at the time of preventive supervision.

It should also be noted that the practice of arbitrary detention is widely used by the Belarusian authorities against opposition activists and has become systemic and systematic.

In this regard, FIDH and Human Rights Center "Viasna", state that:

- actions of the Belarusian authorities against Pavel Vinahradau are illegal and have a political motive, being aimed at involuntary termination or modification of the public activities of Pavel Vinahradau;

- deprivation of liberty (administrative detention for 15 days), as well as previous arrests were applied to Pavel Vinahradau solely in connection with his political beliefs;

- these circumstances allow us to regard Pavel Vinahradau as a political prisoner for the  time of his isolation.

In this regard, FIDH and Human Rights Center "Viasna" require the authorities of Belarus to: 

- immediately release Pavel Vinahradau and cancel all the illegal court rulings against him;

- stop the practice of arbitrary detention and other forms of pressure and harassment against Pavel Vinahradau and other activists of the opposition groups and movements;

- release all political prisoners held in prisons and correctional colonies of Belarus; 

- end the practice of persecution of dissidents in Belarus as a necessary condition for the normalization of the situation of human rights in the country.