BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/05/2007

Minsk Denies Seeking EU Favor With Release Of Two Political Prisoners

Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrey Papou told journalists on May 24 that the early release of opposition leaders Mikalay Statkevich and Pavel Sevyarynets from prison (see "RFE/RL Newsline," May 23, 2007) was not intended to persuade the European Union to preserve trade benefits to Belarus, Belapan reported. "We have never haggled with anyone.... We proceed from the assumption that Belarus is a law-governed state, and what happens in the country is in accordance with regulations currently in force," Papou said. Meanwhile, Jean-Eric Holzapfel, the first counselor at the European Commission's Kyiv-based delegation to Ukraine and Belarus, told Belapan that the prisoners' release on parole will not influence the EU's decision on whether to suspend Belarus's trade benefits under the bloc's Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Statkevich and Sevyarynets in May 2005 were each sentenced to three years in prison for staging a series of unauthorized demonstrations in Minsk in the fall of 2004 against the official results of the 2004 parliamentary elections and referendum. Both Statkevich and Sevyarynets linked their early release to an upcoming EU decision on whether to deny GSP benefits to Belarus. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/05/3-cee/cee-250507.asp