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Charter97 editor seeks political asylum in Lithuania

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Summary of stories from RFE/RL, capsule August 8, price 2011, ed and charter97, August 9, 2011

Natalya Radzina, a prominent Belarusian opposition activist who fled the country four months ago, has disclosed she is in Lithuania where she has asked for political asylum.

Ms Radzina, editor of charter97.org website, was charged with participation in an unsanctioned mass protest against the results of the December 19 presidential election that gave incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka another term.

After being held for a month in a secret service (KGB) detention center, she was released on March 30 and allowed to return her home town of Kobryn in western Belarus.

She disappeared the following day, failing to turn up for KGB questioning in Minsk.

Delivering a speech at an extraordinary meeting of the Lithuanian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee she talked about the situation for political prisoners in Belarus, and about a crackdown on journalists in Belarus.

She talked about the death of charter97.org website’s founder Aleh Byabenin (Oleg Bebenin), the assassination of Dzmitry Zavadski and Veranika Charkasava and about “Novaya Gazeta” journalist Iryna Khalip, (see WVoN coverage) who was released after a trial but stays under supervision in a situation that amounts to house arrest.

“Today” Ms Radzina said, “every Belarusian who is undesirable for the authorities can be arrested, abducted or murdered any time.”

“And Europe continues to observe the terrorism passively, and just making declarative statements from time to time. The time of declarations is over.”

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