Belarusian activist seeks political asylum in Ukraine

Artyom Dubsky: “When we were on trial in spring of this year, we had no illusions about Belarusian justice. We went to court because we were certain that we would be acquitted under the pressure of Belarusian society and Europe. Our hopes proved unfounded yet only one person, Andrei Kim, was actually imprisoned. And together with nine others, I found myself in the position of hostage who could be imprisoned at any moment.  The statements from the European Union claiming that we don’t have political prisoners and steps towards recognizing the regime are simply betrayal and hypocrisy. Of course in such a situation I can except nothing from Belarusian courts except a prison sentence on absolutely no grounds at all. For that reason I decided to leave Belarus”.

A second criminal investigation has been initiated against Artyom Dubsky, one of the accused in the “Trial of 14”.

This spring Dubsky and 9 other opposition activists received two year restriction of liberty sentences for taking part in the protest rallies organized by business people on 10 and 21 January this year.

The new criminal investigation is on charges of infringing the restriction of liberty terms, and would all appear to be contrived.  According to Dubsky, surveillance officers visited his home and accused him of being drunk. Despite a negative blood test, a protocol was still drawn up. The second “infringement” is the claim that Dubsky refused to let surveillance officers into the house, whereas in fact his sister had asked them to take off their shoes while carrying out their search.  They also allege that on a different occasion Dubsky refused to let them look inside his bag.

Artyom believes that he is being persecuted for continuing his opposition activities. He has applied for political asylum in Ukraine.

From information at www.charter97.org