Pavel Latushko, a member of the Coordination Council of the Belarusian opposition, believes that the EU will expand the sanctions lists of Belarusian judges and officials, as well as security officials.
The European Union is preparing the fourth package of sanctions against Belarus. Pavel Latushko, ex-Minister of Culture of Belarus and member of the Coordination Council of the Belarusian opposition, announced this on February 21 in Telegram.
“The procedure for preparing the sanctions package presupposes confidentiality, but it can be assumed that the European Union will expand the sanctions lists of judges and officials, as well as security officials. Moreover, the European Union, acting rather cautiously in terms of sanctions, has taken very seriously the elaboration of a comprehensive legal approach,” says the politician.
He also added that an international mechanism is already being created to investigate crimes of the special services and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus against the Belarusian people, in particular, a corresponding factual evidence base is already being formed.
In Belarus, since August 9, 2020, protest actions of those who disagree with the results of voting in the presidential elections continue. According to official data, the victory in them was won by Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, for whom 80.1% of voters voted. The second place with 10.1% of the votes was taken by the Belarusian oppositionist Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. At the same time, alternative exit polls showed the opposite picture – Tikhanovskaya’s confident victory.
The opposition insists on holding new elections in Belarus. Lukashenka said that first, the country needs to change the constitution (the draft of the new constitution, according to him, will present in 2021), and only after that hold new elections.
At the beginning of February, there are 256 political prisoners in the country. According to the Viasna human rights center, more than 25,000 people have been detained at rallies since August, and they received a total of 83,000 days of arrest. The authorities announced four dead protesters, the opposition – eight.
On October 2, the European Union imposed restrictive measures against 40 persons responsible for falsifying the results of the presidential elections and forcibly suppressing peaceful protests. On November 6, the EU imposed sanctions against Lukashenka and 14 other Belarusian officials. On December 17, the EU introduced the third package of sanctions against Belarus; restrictive measures affected 29 people and seven organizations.
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