The Lithuanian Migration Department has begun the process of deporting Belarusian journalist Oleg Borshchevsky, husband of Nobel Peace Prize nominee and human rights activist Olga Karach, to Belarus where he will be imprisoned and tortured. He needs your solidarity and support. Please write a letter of support for Oleg to the Lithuanian Migration Department to stop his deportation. The draft of the letter:
To: Evelina Gudzinskaite,
The head of the migration department in Lithuania
Emails:
evelina.gudzinskaite@migracija.gov.lt
From: Name, organization
Dear Ms Gudzinskaite!
We are very concerned about the safety of the Belarusian journalist Oleg Borshchevsky (Aleh Barshcheuski) who has fled to Lithuania because he as a member of the opposition to the Lukashenko regime faces arrest, imprisonment and torture in his home country. We have learned that his asylum application has been rejected and he has been informed this week that he might be deported to Belarus.
According to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights by which Lithuania as a member of the European Union is bound, deportation to third countries is forbidden if the person deported “could be subjected to the death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (http://fra.europa.eu/en/eu-charter/article/19-protection-event-removal-expulsion-or-extradition).
Oleg Borshevsky faces up to seven years in Belarusian prison for participation in media outlets and CSOs considered “extremist” in Belarus. Torture is a common practice by the security sector in Belarus as numerous human rights organizations have documented, for example Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/15/belarus-systematic-beatings-torture-protesters
Hundreds of Belarusians returning home are detained right at the border, most of them for reposting news from media resources considered “extremist” in Belarus or for participation in the 2020 protests: https://belsat.eu/ru/news/11-01-2024-minimum-207-chelovek-zaderzhany-po-vozvrashhenii-v-belarus-za-god-statistika-pravozashhitnikov.
Here are some details about Oleg Borshchevsky (Aleh Barshcheuski):
1. He is the father of two minor children who have asylum in Lithuania.
2. He is a member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, considered an extremist CSO in Belarus.
3. He was the editor of the media resource “Vitebskiy Kurier”, considered an extremist media in Belarus.
4. He is the editor of the website “Nash Dom info“, considered an extremist media in Belarus.
5. The website “Nash Dom info” belongs to the human rights organisation “Nash Dom”, consideredan extremist CSO in Belarus.
6. He is the husband of human rights defender Olga Karach, considered a “terrorist” in Belarus. The Belarusian regime practices taking relatives of well-known human rights defenders, activists and journalists hostage1.
7. In September 2022 Oleg Borshchevsky (Aleh Barshcheuski) applied for political asylum, which was refused.
8. On March 25, 2024, he received a letter from the Department of Migration with an offer to leave Lithuania voluntarily or he will be subjected to the process of forced deportation to Belarus, i.e. to a Belarusian prison.
We kindly ask you to stop the deportation procedures of the journalist Oleg Borschchevsky (Aleh Barshcheuski) to Belarus, where he will be arrested, imprisoned and tortured. Grant him and his family the right to stay in Lithuania.
The best regards,
Name
More details in Our House website at:
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