Amnesty International Report 2017/18

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

21 July and whose appeals were rejected by 

the Supreme Court on 20 December, and 

Viktar Liotau who was sentenced on 22 

September. Kiryl Kazachok, who was 

sentenced on 28 December 2016, chose not 

to appeal.

PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE

Dozens of protesters were sentenced for their 

peaceful activism. On 7 April, Zavodski 

District Court in Minsk changed Dzmitry 

Paliyenka’s conditional sentence from 2016 

to two years’ imprisonment after he received 

two administrative penalties. His first 

administrative penalty on 10 March 2017 – a 

seven-day detention for “minor hooliganism” 

and “disobedience to lawful police demands” 

– was imposed after he vocally criticized the 

verdict at a trial he was observing. His 

second administrative penalty on 20 March 

2017 – a 15-day detention for “organizing or 

participating in unsanctioned mass events” – 

was imposed for his peaceful protest on 25 

February against the construction of a 

building in central Minsk. Dzmitry Paliyenka 

received the two-year suspended sentence 

for purportedly assaulting a police officer 

during a peaceful cyclists’ protest in Minsk in 

April 2016.

FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY

In February and March, thousands of people 

attended a series of peaceful rallies across 

the country to protest against the tax on the 

unemployed. Some of the organizers and 

participants reported harassment by the 

police, including brief detentions and police 

summons for questioning. On 25 March, 

police prevented peaceful protesters from 

assembling in central Minsk and arrested 

hundreds; some arrests were made using 

excessive force. Some protesters were 

severely beaten by law enforcement officials 

during arrest and in police custody.

Between February and April, over 900 

people were arrested in connection with the 

protests, including political activists who were 

prevented from attending the protests and 

journalists. At least 177 were found guilty of 

purported administrative offences and fined 

or detained for five to 25 days. All but one 

arrested individual were found guilty in 

summary trials; courts uniformly accepted 

police reports as evidence against them 

without any questioning.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Heavy restrictions on NGOs remained in 

place. Under Article 193.1 of the Criminal 

Code, the founding, or participation in, the 

activities of an unregistered organization 

remained a crime punishable by up to two 

years’ imprisonment.

On 25 March, masked police officers raided 

the office of human rights group Vyasna and 

arrested all 57 people present. Among them 

were local and international human rights 

defenders and journalists who were attending 

training on how to monitor demonstrations. 

They were held for three hours at the local 

police station and released without charge or 

explanation. One detainee was hospitalized 

for head injuries sustained during the arrest.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Official accreditation remained compulsory 

for anyone working for a foreign media outlet 

and continued to be routinely and arbitrarily 

denied. More than 100 print, radio and TV 

journalists and bloggers were arrested for not 

having obtained accreditation, some 

repeatedly, leading to fines. In at least eight 

cases, journalists reporting from protests 

were arrested as participants and sentenced 

to administrative detention of between five 

and 15 days.

Journalist Larysa Schyryakova, from the city 

Homel in southeastern Belarus, was arrested 

and fined repeatedly for reporting on 

protests. She reported that police warned her 

that she could be found “socially 

irresponsible” if she committed further 

administrative offences and that her 11-year-

old son might be placed in a children’s home.

LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR 

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS

The tax on the unemployed remained in 

place; failure to comply continued to incur 

administrative fines and compulsory 

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community service. In March, after the 

protests against the tax, the President 

mandated the government to suspend the tax 

collection until 2018; in August, he promised 

to waive the tax for “people with many 

children, the sick and invalids”. Respective 

changes were introduced in October.

REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS

Belarus lacked a functioning asylum system 

and repeatedly handed over individuals 

seeking international protection to authorities 

of countries where they were at real risk of 

torture or other ill-treatment.

FORCIBLE RETURN

Ethnic Chechen Imran Salamov, who claimed 

to have been repeatedly tortured in 

Chechnya, was forcibly returned to Russia on 

5 September. He was in the process of 

appealing against his rejected asylum 

application. On 11 September, the Chechen 

authorities confirmed that he was in police 

custody in Grozny, capital of Chechnya. Since 

that date, he had had no contact with his 

lawyer or family and his whereabouts 

remained undisclosed at the end of the year. 

Following his forcible return, the Belarusian 

authorities opened an investigation which 

concluded that there had been a violation of 

Belarusian law and that Imran Salamov had 

been prematurely expelled from Belarus. 

Disciplinary action was taken against a 

number of officials linked to his case and was 

ongoing at the end of the year.

Russian-Ukrainian-Israeli blogger Aleksandr 

Lapshin was detained in Belarus in 

December 2016 on request from Azerbaijan, 

and extradited to Azerbaijan in February 

where he was detained arbitrarily and 

prosecuted in connection with his blog posts 

criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities. 

Aleksandr Lapshin was sentenced to three 

years’ imprisonment and released under a 

presidential pardon on 11 September (see 

Azerbaijan entry).

BELGIUM

Kingdom of Belgium

Head of state: King Philippe

Head of government: Charles Michel

Prison conditions remained poor; hundreds 

of offenders with mental health problems or 

mental disabilities continued to be detained 

in inadequate prison wards. Several laws on 

professional secrecy introduced 

requirements for social workers to share 

private information regarding potential 

suspects of terrorism-related offences. 

Parliament introduced a number of 

restrictions to asylum and migration laws. A 

new law on legal gender recognition 

improved the rights of transgender people.

COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY

In July, Parliament adopted a new law 

establishing a special status and 

compensation system for victims of terrorism-

related offences. However, the law failed to 

ensure swift and full compensation. Victims 

could access state compensation only after a 

burdensome and lengthy process.

In May, Parliament passed a law requiring 

employees of welfare institutions to report to 

prosecutors, or provide upon their request, 

information on people who could be involved 

in the perpetration of terrorism-related 

offences. In June a new law passed that 

allowed the sharing of confidential 

information previously protected by 

professional secrecy obligations to prevent 

the commission of terrorism-related offences.

In October, Parliament amended the 

Constitution to increase the maximum 

duration of pre-charge detention from 24 to 

48 hours. The provision applies to suspects 

of any crime, although the initial proposed 

scope was restricted to suspects of terrorism-

related offences.

Authorities failed to effectively monitor the 

human rights impact of measures against 

terrorism and radicalization.

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