Belarus faces allegations of violent disappearance of persons who have been forced to be hospitalized after protests against Lukashenko’s regime.
Independent United Nations Experts (UN) condemned the Regulations of the Belarusian courts on Thursday, on the basis of which the critics of the local government have undergone “pressure psychiatric treatment” over the past five years. So far, experts have recorded at least 33 such cases. According to them, there were five women among the victims and the oldest person was 77 years old. According to the AFP report, TASR writes about it.
Twenty experts who dealt with cases were appointed by the UN Council for Human Rights. “The process leading to the transfer to compulsory psychiatric treatment is not sufficiently transparent and raises serious doubts about whether such transfer is motivated by health or political reasons,” experts said.
They added that these trials were held behind closed doors and the persons concerned allegedly hold “in isolation under the unlimited jurisdiction of the chief doctor”.
“Unlike prisoners in prisoners, they are deprived of freedom for an indefinite period of time and cannot apply for mercy or conditional release … At least 25 people remain in isolation and no information about their fate or residence, which raises concerns about their possible violent disappearance,” the UN experts said.
Experts called on Belarus to immediately provide all concerned persons with a legal representation.
After the presidential election in 2020, which, according to official results, again won Alexander Lukashenko, mass protests against the manipulated voting broke out in Belarus. However, the security forces suppressed the riots hard. The Belarusians tried to protest in February 2022, when Russia attacked Ukraine. Hundreds of people were detained. Since then, there have been no mass demonstrations in this country, AFP added.
