Charter'97 Blockers - To 'Magnitsky List'!

Natallia Radzina met with the leaders of two major factions of the European Parliament.

The Charter97.org Editor-in-Chief Natallia Radzina met with deputy head of the European People's Party faction in the European Parliament, former Latvian Foreign Minister Sandra Kalniete and Deputy head of the Conservatives and Reformists group, MEP from Latvia Roberts Zīle.

During the meeting with Latvian politicians, Natallia Radzina spoke about the situation with the blocking of the Charter97.org website in Belarus, the initiation of a criminal case against the popular video blogger Stsiapan Svetly, as well as the planned amendments to the Media Law, which imply even greater control over Internet sites in Belarus, including social networks.

According to the Editor-in-Chief of Charter'97, it is necessary to immediately respond to the "mop-up operation" of independent media in Belarus. Natallia Radzina urged the MPs from Latvia to consider the possibility of imposing European sanctions on the Belarusian officials responsible for the repressions against journalists, also by including in the "Magnitsky list" the Information Minister of Belarus Aliaksandr Karliukevich, Deputy Information Minister Ihar Lutski (currently the general manager of the TV channel "Metropolitan Television") and Pavel Liohki, as well as head of the Operational and Analytical Center under Lukashenka's administration Andrei Pauliuchenka.

Important to note, the Parliament of Latvia recently supported "the Magnitsky Act", which envisages imposing sanctions against the persons responsible for human rights violations.

The Latvian MEPs were interested in the political and economic situation in Belarus. The situation with political prisoners and the "trade union case", within which hundreds of activists of the REP trade union are being persecuted in Belarus today, was discussed separately.

Deputy head of the European People's Party fraction in the European Parliament, former Latvian Foreign Minister Sandra Kalniete stated that she intended to ask the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn to react to the situation with the blocking of independent websites in Belarus. She also intends to get reaction to the pressure on freedom of speech in Belarus, from head of the delegation on relations with Belarus Bogdan Zdroevsky. Also, the MEP admitted the possibility of adopting an urgent resolution on the situation in Belarus. Sandra Kalniete promised that she would convey her concerns about the blocking of Charter'97 to the Belarusian officials.

Deputy head of the Conservatives and Reformists group Roberts Zīle stated that he intended to discuss the situation with the blocking of Charter97.org and the growing influence of the Russian propaganda in Belarus with the head of the Committee for Security and Defense, Anna Fotyga, in order to jointly inform European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Frederica Mogherini and take urgent measures. Roberts Zīle also said that he intended to discuss the inclusion of Belarusian officials in the "Magnitsky list" with Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics.

Earlier, Natallia Radzina discussed the situation with Charter'97 blocking and the possibility of imposing sanctions against the Belarusian officials and Lukashenka's High-Tech Park with Vice-President of the European Parliament Pavel Telička, head of the European Parliament's Committee for Security and Defense Anna Fotygo and the MEPs from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Sweden.