Belarus HR group reports political prisoner Dmitriy Schlethauer’s death amid nationwide deterioration of human rights

Viasna Human Rights Centre, one of many oldest human rights teams in Belarus, reported on Friday that political prisoner Dmitriy Schlethauer died on 11 October 2024, lower than one month after being transferred to the penal colony in Mogilev in jap Belarus. The reason for demise is unknown.

In accordance with Viasna, a trial happened in Brest, the place Schlethauer was convicted for espionage and facilitating extremist actions below Article 358 and Half 1 of Article 361-4 of the Prison Code of Belarus respectively. The court docket sentenced Schlethauer to 12 years’ imprisonment at first occasion. Schlethauer’s enchantment was heard and dismissed on 30 August 2024 behind closed doorways.

In accordance with exiled opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the demise of Schlethauer marks the seventh occasion of a political prisoner dying in detention. Presently, not less than two different political prisoners charged with espionage are in detention, together with Polish citizen Tomasz Bjaroza and Ukrainian nationwide Andrei Szmai. Tsikhanouskaya has referred to as for pressing worldwide motion to “forestall extra deaths”.

Ales Bialiatski, the founding father of Viasna and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, can be at present imprisoned for financing the 2020 protests and smuggling money by an organized group.

The report comes amidst deteriorating human rights circumstances in Belarus. Because the presidential election in 2020, which sparked mass protests in Belarus, greater than 1,000 demonstrators have been imprisoned. The UN discovered a possible crime in opposition to humanity of persecution in Belarus throughout and after the election. Human rights organizations have warned about systemic repression of activists and human rights attorneys, condemning the crackdown on free speech and judicial independence.

Underneath Article 9 of the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), nobody shall be topic to arbitrary arrest or detention. Underneath Article 10, all individuals disadvantaged of their liberty shall be handled with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human individual. Belarus withdrew from the First Optionally available Protocol of the ICCPR in 2022, successfully depriving victims of human rights violations of the fitting to deliver their claims earlier than the Human Rights Committee.