{"id":45250,"date":"2020-06-19T16:48:16","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T14:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/?p=45250"},"modified":"2025-06-30T16:21:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:21:29","slug":"eu-2020-06-19-eu-calls-belarus-to-release-viktor-babariko-and-his-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/eu-2020-06-19-eu-calls-belarus-to-release-viktor-babariko-and-his-son\/","title":{"rendered":"EU 2020.06.19 EU Calls On Belarusian Authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/cpsprodpb\/10298\/production\/_130300266_12f1d445-c801-456a-bc72-d76a5d3e0b92.jpg.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-66107482\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eduard Babaryko was detained in June 2020, on the <br>same day as his father, Viktor, was standing for president<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Father and Son Jailed<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Politically Motivated Restrictions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Statement by the EU spokesperson<\/em>,<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em><strong>The EU strongly urges the Belarusian authorities to ensure a meaningful and competitive political contest.<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em><strong>No potential candidate should be prevented from fulfilling the registration procedure due to politically motivated restrictive measures, the statement by the EU spokesperson on recent developments\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/eeas.europa.eu\/delegations\/belarus\/81198\/belarus-statement-spokesperson-recent-developments_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reads<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HgXwVXWZYs4?si=DUpy_Gtuy8OQdwqn\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/ru\/komanda-babariko-soobshhila-o-vozbuzhdenii-protiv-ego-syna-novogo-dela\/a-60197673\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Babariko Jr. could face up to 20 years in prison<\/a> Source: DW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cThe EU calls on Belarusian authorities to immediately release them (Viktor Babariko, one of the potential presidential candidates, and his son Eduard Babariko) from pre-trial detention and to guarantee full respect of the rule of law, including a fair and transparent investigation and the right to have access to a lawyer. Any investigation must be impartial and without political pressure.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The EU representatives also remind the Belarusian authorities to respect fundamental freedoms and human rights in line with the country\u2019s international commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cThey must refrain from any restrictions on the rights of potential candidates, avoid any detentions of peaceful protesters, and immediately release all arbitrarily detained activists.&nbsp;Reported cases of ill-treatment of persons detained for their involvement in peaceful protests, including Pavel Severinets, are extremely worrying.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The EU expects Belarus to officially invite the OSCE\/ODIHR to monitor the elections as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cSafe, peaceful, free, and fair elections will foster democratic development in Belarus, reinforce its sovereignty and independence, and pave the way for greater cooperation with the EU and economic prosperity for the Belarusian people,\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>the statement concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The German Foreign Ministry also expressed its concern about the situation in Belarus and the arrest of Viktor Babariko in particular. German Foreign Ministry\u00a0spokesman\u00a0Christopher Burger made the agency\u2019s position public at a briefing in Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em><strong>Babariko\u2019s case<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko\u2019s main political rival in the presidential election, Viktor Babariko, and his son were detained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>According to\u00a0the head of the State Control Committee (KGC), Ivan Tertel, Viktor Babariko\u00a0was detained in connection with the fact that he was \u201ca direct organizer, a leader of illegal activities\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was particularly accused of trying to influence witnesses, hiding previous crimes, and siphoning $430 million out of Belarus in money-laundering schemes, including the one in the Latvian bank ABVL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Babariko\u2019s lawyers&nbsp;said&nbsp;they were not allowed into the building where he was taken. Besides,&nbsp;law enforcement officials&nbsp;were conducting searches&nbsp;at Babariko\u2019s houses. According to unofficial reports, Viktor and his son Eduard were both sent to the KGB pre-trial detention center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Babariko has yet to formally register for the presidential race. His campaign has collected 425,000 signatures, while a minimum of 100,000 is needed for the nomination. Recall that\u00a0Babariko is an ex-head of Belgazprombank,\u00a0whose offices were raided\u00a0last Thursday in a tax evasion case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About 20 bank employees were detained, and the bank was taken into temporary administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u03a0\u03b7\u03b3\u03ae:<\/strong><br><strong># <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eeas.europa.eu\/eeas\/belarus-statement-spokesperson-recent-developments_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.eeas.europa.eu\/eeas\/belarus-statement-spokesperson-recent-developments_en<\/a><br># <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/ru\/komanda-babariko-soobshhila-o-vozbuzhdenii-protiv-ego-syna-novogo-dela\/a-60197673\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.dw.com\/ru\/komanda-babariko-soobshhila-o-vozbuzhdenii-protiv-ego-syna-novogo-dela\/a-60197673<\/a><br># <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lucian_kim\/status\/1273654077830955009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/lucian_kim\/status\/1273654077830955009<\/a><br># <a href=\"https:\/\/charter97.org\/en\/news\/2020\/6\/19\/382906\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/charter97.org\/en\/news\/2020\/6\/19\/382906\/<\/a><br># <a href=\"https:\/\/belsat.eu\/en\/news\/06-07-2021-viktar-babaryka-sentenced-to-14-years-of-imprisonment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/belsat.eu\/en\/news\/06-07-2021-viktar-babaryka-sentenced-to-14-years-of-imprisonment<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eduard Babaryko was detained in June 2020, on the same day as his father, Viktor, was standing for president Father and Son Jailed Politically Motivated Restrictions Statement by the EU spokesperson, The EU strongly urges the Belarusian authorities to ensure a meaningful and competitive political contest. No potential candidate should be prevented from fulfilling the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}