On 21 May, the European Union celebrated the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners in Belarus, in memory of the political prisoner Vitold Ashurak, who died in Penal Colony No. 17 in Škloŭ on 21 May 2021. The cause and the circumstances of his death have not yet been investigated, recalled the high representative of the EU Josep Borrell in a statement.
According to the EU, since the summer of 2020, Lukashenko’s regime has made more than 40,000 politically motivated arrests and prosecuted at least 12,000 politically motivated criminal cases. There are now almost 1,500 political prisoners in Belarus.
The space for civil society has been severely restricted by the Lukashenko regime and so far more than 1,283 non-governmental entities have been forced into liquidation. “This, added to the intensification of the regime’s repression, has made any political debate and any expression of political opposition impossible,” says Borrell.
The EU High Representative also recalled that the recent OSCE Moscow Mechanism report on Belarus documents that “numerous political prisoners are imprisoned in appalling conditions and exposed to ill-treatment and torture. People with severe disabilities and life-threatening conditions are denied adequate medical care. On May 7, blogger Mikalai Klimovich, who suffered from a serious heart condition, died in prison. His “crime” was to have published a caricature of Lukashenko on social networks.”
According to Borrell, Lukashenko also continues to subjugate the country to Russia, cooperate with Russia’s illegal aggression against Ukraine, and brutally persecute Belarusians for speaking out against the war and for supporting Ukraine.
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