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Belarus Crackdown

Anton Surapin (file photo)
Anton Surapin (file photo)
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) representative on media freedom, Dunja Mijatovic, has asked the Belarusian authorities to drop charges against a blogger.

Mijatovic's appeal was for Anton Surapin, who faces up to seven years in prison for uploading photos of teddy bears that had been dropped by plane into Belarus.

Surapin was arrested last month after posting photos of bears dropped from a Swedish plane in the Minsk area accompanied by texts supporting Belarusian dissidents and the country’s opposition.

Belarus expelled the Swedish ambassador last week and announced on August 8 it was withdrawing all staff from the Belarusian Embassy in Stockholm over the incident.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry also told Stockholm to withdraw its diplomats in Minsk.
Ales Byalyatski sits in a Minsk court during his trial in November 2011.
Ales Byalyatski sits in a Minsk court during his trial in November 2011.
MINSK -- Opposition politicians and activists in Belarus have handed a petition to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka demanding the immediate release of Ales Byalyatski, the jailed chairman of the Minsk-based Vyasna human rights center.

Vyasna has actively reported on Lukashenka's ongoing crackdown on dissent.

Byalyatski was arrested in August 2011 and sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison on tax-evasion charges that the European Union and United States have condemned as politically motivated.

The charges against Byalyatski stemmed from his alleged use of personal accounts in Lithuania and Poland to receive funding from international donors for rights activities in Belarus.

Byalyatski has pleaded not guilty.

With reporting by Interfax

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