The sister of Belarusian presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov appeared at a special meeting of ambassadors of Council of Europe member states.

Iryna Bahdanava also met with Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

The sister of the political prisoner and leader of Free Belarus Now campaign said at the meeting about the situation with prisoners of conscience in Belarus, the recent provocations in prisons against Andrei Sannikov and Zmitser Dashkevich, health deterioration of coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign Zmitser Bandarenka, trial against human rights activist Ales Byalyatski. Iryna Bahdanava made detailed reports about each political prisoner.

Bahdanava also spoke about the recent amendments to the law on mass events, activity of NGOs and political parties that forbid any protest actions and foreign aid to NGOs and political parties.

According to political prisoner’s sister, the West should continue to press on the Belarusian regime and impose sanctions amid aggravation of political situation in Belarus.

“EU policy towards Belarus has failed. EU’s reaction to events is untimely and inadequate. Quicker and tougher actions are needed. Europe should stop trading with the dictatorship conniving at crimes of the regime,” Iryna Bahdanava said.

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