Alyaksandr Kazulin

Amnesty International is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Alyaksandr Kazulin, leader of the Belarusian Socialist Democratic Party, Hramada, former presidential candidate and former rector of the Belarusian State University, who has been in prison since March 2006. AI believes that Alyaksandr Kazulin is a prisoner of conscience, and that his continuing imprisonment is a violation of his rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression.

Amnesty International asserts that Alyaksandr Kazulin is being detained unlawfully, following a flagrantly unfair trial. The charges brought against Alyaksandr Kazulin, for which he is serving a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence, are a blatant pretext by the Belarusian authorities aimed at intimidating Alyaksandr Kazulin and obstructing his lawful political activities.

Furthermore, the organization is calling for the Belarusian government to conduct full and impartial investigations into reports of ill-treatment suffered by Alyaksandr Kazulin on various occasions at the hands of law enforcement officials, and to ensure that he receives full redress.

Alyaksandr Kazulin was charged, under the provisions of the Belarusian Criminal Code, with "hooliganism", article 339, part 2, and, with "the organization of group activities that breach public order or active participation in similar activities", article 342, part 1. The prosecutor called for Alyaksandr Kazulin to be sentenced to a total of six years' imprisonment, three years on each charge. On 13 July 2006, a Minsk district court sentenced him to five and a half years.

TAKE ACTION:

Send letters to Belarusian authorities that:

• call for the immediate and unconditional release of Alyaksandr Kazulin as a prisoner of conscience;
• remind the Belarusian authorities of their obligations under Articles 19, 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Belarus is a state party, which guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association;
• urge the Belarusian authorities to stop the obstruction, harassment and intimidation of civil society activists engaged directly or indirectly in the promotion and defense of human rights in Belarus;
• call for full and impartial investigations by the Belarusian authorities into reports of ill-treatment suffered by Alyaksandr Kazulin at the hands of law enforcement officials and to ensure that he receives full redress.

Write to:

President of the Republic of Belarus
Alyaksandr Lukashenka
ul. Karla Marksa, 38
220016 g. Minsk
REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

Chairman of the Belarusian House of Representatives
Vadim A. Popov
Sovetskaya Str. 11
220010 g. Minsk
REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

Ambassador to the U.S.A.
His Excellency Mikhail Khvostov
Embassy of Belarus
1619 New Hampshire Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009

Prime Minister
Sergei S. Sidorskiy
Council of Ministers
Dom Pravitelstvo
220010 g. Minsk
REPUBLIC OF BELARUS