The European Union and the United States on August 9 marked the fourth anniversary of massive protests in Belarus by calling for the release of all political prisoners and voicing support for the Belarusian people.
The 2020 election, widely seen as fraudulent both at home and abroad, gave Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko his sixth term in office. The disputed balloting touched off the biggest protests and crackdown on dissent in Belarus in its post-Soviet history.
In a statement marking the anniversary, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell emphasized that “the EU remains united in its support to the brave people of Belarus, the Belarusian democratic movement, and civil society in their quest for a free, democratic, sovereign, and independent Belarus as part of a peaceful Europe.”
Lukashenko’s government responded to the protests with a brutal crackdown, in which over 35,000 people were arrested and thousands were beaten. The Viasna human rights group estimates that Belarus now has about 1,400 political prisoners, including the group’s founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski.
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