Release Belarusian Students
Posted April 15, 2022
Scholars at Risk sent the below letter to Belarusian authorities urging them to secure the immediate release of 11 students and one professor serving prison sentences of two years to two and a half years in apparent retaliation for their nonviolent exercise of the rights of freedom of expression and assembly.
You can support the students and professor by signing this letter.
Via email
Alexander Lukashenko
Office of the President
Republic of Belarus
April 15, 2022
RE: Release Belarusian Students
Your Excellency:
I write on behalf of Scholars at Risk to express grave concern for 11 students and one professor currently serving prison sentences of two years to two and a half years in apparent retaliation for their nonviolent exercise of the rights of freedom of expression and assembly. We respectfully urge you to secure their immediate release and, pending this, to ensure their well-being while in prison.
Scholars at Risk (SAR) is an international network of more than 600 universities and colleges in 42 countries dedicated to protecting the human rights of scholars around the world and to raising awareness, understanding of, and respect for the principles of academic freedom and its constituent freedoms of expression, opinion, thought, association, and travel. In cases like this, involving alleged infringement of these freedoms, SAR investigates, hoping to clarify and resolve matters favorably.
SAR understands that concerns about election fraud on August 9, 2020, triggered mass demonstrations across the country for months. Authorities responded to peaceful protests—many of which were organized by students—with arrests and violent force.
On November 12, 2020, the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus (KBG) conducted a series of house raids and arrested 11 students, including members of the Belarusian Students Association (BSA), and a professor in connection with the protests. Those arrested include Alana Gebremariam, a member of BSA’s coordinating council and opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s representative for youth and student affairs; Belarusian State University students Ksenia Syramalot, who serves as BSA’s press secretary, Illia Trakhtenberg, Tanya Yakelchyk, a member of BSA, and Yahor Kanetski, a member of BSA and the Free Trade Union; Belarusian National Technical University students Nastya Bulybenka and Vika Hrankouskaya; Belarusian State Pedagogical University students and BSA members Kasia Budzko and Yana Arabeika; Belarusian State Academy of Arts student Masha Kalenik; Minsk State Linguistic University student Hleb Fitzner; and Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics Professor Volha Filatchankava.
On May 14, 2021, the students and professor were charged with “organizing and preparing in group actions that grossly violate public order” (Criminal Code Article 342(1)). On July 16, 2021, the students and professor were sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment, with the exception of Mr. Flitzner, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. While the students have access to family visits, prison authorities have reportedly barred any letters from being delivered to the students.
We welcome any additional information that may explain these events or clarify our understanding. Absent this, the detention and prosecution of Belarusian students and scholars engaged in nonviolent expressive activity suggest a deeply troubling disregard for international standards of academic freedom, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly, as guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Belarus is a party. Not only do these detentions and prosecutions harm the immediate victims, they also threaten to do irreparable harm to Belarus’s higher education community by silencing healthy debate and damaging the conditions required for quality higher education.
We therefore respectfully urge you to call on the responsible authorities to immediately release the detained students and scholars, and any others detained for the nonviolent exercise of their rights, and pending this, to ensure their well-being and access to legal counsel, family, and medical care.
I appreciate your attention to this important matter and look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Robert Quinn
Executive Director
CC:
The Honorable Igor V. Karpenko
Minister of Education of the Republic of Belarus
The Honorable Ivan Kubrakov
Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus
The Honorable Ivan Naskevich
Chair of the Investigative Committee
The Honorable Vladimir Makei
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus
The Honorable Michelle Bachelet
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Honorable Anaïs Marin
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus
The Honorable Valentin Rybakov
Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations
The Honorable Josep Borrell Fontelles
European Commission High Representative/Vice President
The Honorable Robert Biedroń
Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Belarus
The Honorable Petras Auštrevičius Standing Rapporteur on Belarus
The Honorable Dirk Schuebel
Head of European Union Delegation to Belarus
The Honorable Eamon Gilmore
European Union Special Representative for Human Rights
Dr. Wolfgang Benedek
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Rapporteur
Ms. Karinna Moskalenko
UN Human Rights Office’s Fact-Finding Mission on Belarus
c/o Rupert Colville
Mr. Marko Milanović
UN Human Rights Office’s Fact-Finding Mission on Belarus
Ms. Susan Bazilli
UN Human Rights Office’s Fact-Finding Mission on Belarus
