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Country: Belarus
City / Location:
Period / Date:
Subject: Alleged imposition of travel bans on, due process violations against and sentencing of human rights defenders. According to the information received, on 13 February 2011, the Minsk City Court dismissed Mr. Valiantsin Stefanovich’s appeal, upholding an order to pay a fine of 53 million rubles for “non-payment or incomplete payment of taxes”. Mr. Stefanovich is the Vice-Chairman of the Human Rights Centre “Viasna”. On 24 January 2012, the Minsk City Court reportedly dismissed the appeal of Ales Bialiatski, Chairman of “Viasna” and FIDH Vice-President, upholding the sentence of four and a half years imprisonment and fines totalling 757 million rubles for “tax evasion on a large scale”. It is alleged that these criminal cases were politically motivated. Reportedly, Mr. Aleh Volchek, Head of Legal Aid to the Population, was sentenced to four days of administrative detention on 30 January for “petty hooliganism” after his organisation had published a report on the trial of Mr. Bialiatski. In March 2012, Ms. Zhanna Litvina, chairperson of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), and Messrs. Valiantsin Stefanovich, Aleh Hulak, member of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC), Andrey Dynko, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper “Nasha Niva”, and Harry Pahanyayla, chairman of the Legal Commission of the BHC, were all allegedly denied permission to leave the country. Viasna, the BHC, the BAJ and Nasha Niva were among the subjects of an earlier communication (see A/HRC/19/44, case no BLR 7/2011).
Number of identified alleged victims: 7

First name last name	age	sex	affiliation
Aleh Hulak	unknown	male	No affiliation
Aleh Volchek	adult	male	Humanitarian, solidarity, human rights-related activity
Andrey Dynko	unknown	male	No affiliation
Harry Pahanyayla	unknown	male	No affiliation
Identity withheld 1
Valiantsin Stefanovich	adult	male	No affiliation
Zhanna Litvina	unknown	female	No affiliation

Total number of unidentified alleged victims: -

Status or occupation	Number and gender
Group of individuals

General concerns:

Total number of alleged victims: 7
Related communications:
Previous communications: BLR 1/2010; BLR 2/2011; BLR 7/2011; BLR 1/2017; BLR 9/2024
Follow up communications: