The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, together with 23 other human rights organizations, is a signatory to the statement prepared and released by the Human Rights Watch today, on the 12th of June 2023. In this statement we demand from the Belarusain authorities to immediately end the ill-treatment of Maria Kalesnikava and all the other political prisoners. Kalesnikava is being held in solitary confinement and is not receiving adequate medical care despite serious health problems.
Kalesnikava is a prominent opposition figure, musician, and symbol of the peaceful protest movement for human rights in Belarus. She has been held behind bars since September 2020, after she resisted an attempt by the authorities to forcefully expel her from the country. On September 6, 2021, she was sentenced to 11 years in prison on bogus charges of “extremism,” “trying to seize power,” and “calls for actions causing harm to the national security.”
Belarusian authorities should provide information about Kalesnikava’s health condition, urgently grant her access to doctors of her choice, restore her communication with her family, and reinstate her lawyer’s access, the groups said. Belarusian authorities should end their politically motivated prosecutions and release all those imprisoned solely for exercising their fundamental freedoms.