{"id":48389,"date":"2022-05-18T10:56:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T17:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=48389"},"modified":"2022-05-18T10:56:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T17:56:36","slug":"possible-death-penalty-against-pro-democracy-activists-and-anti-war-protesters-in-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=48389","title":{"rendered":"Possible Death Penalty against Pro-Democracy Activists and Anti-War Protesters in Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>05\/18\/2022 11:16 AM EDT<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n<p>Amidst Russia\u2019s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine, the Lukashenka regime in Belarus has found new ways to intimidate and punish its own citizens, including by approving legislation to apply the death penalty to pro-democracy activists and those opposing Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.\u00a0\u00a0Specifically, new amendments to the criminal code permit the use of the death penalty for individuals convicted of \u201cattempted acts of terrorism.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The regime has levied politically motivated charges of \u201cextremism\u201d and \u201cterrorism\u201d against many of the more than 1,100 political prisoners and used such labels to detain tens of thousands more.\u00a0\u00a0These are citizens of Belarus seeking to freely exercise their fundamental freedoms \u2013 peaceful protesters, civil society members, journalists, political opponents and those arrested for opposing Russia\u2019s unjustified war against Ukraine and Belarus\u2019s enabling role in it.\u00a0\u00a0These citizens now also face the threat of the death penalty.<\/p>\n<p>The Lukashenka regime continues to repress, including through violence and these recent amendments to the criminal code, the pro-democracy and anti-war movements in Belarus.\u00a0\u00a0These actions are those of an authoritarian leader desperate to cling to power through fear and intimidation.\u00a0\u00a0The world has observed for almost two years the strength and bravery of the Belarusian people who continue to stand up for their rights in the face of brutal authoritarianism, often at grave personal costs.\u00a0\u00a0The Belarusian people have demonstrated time and time again that the regime cannot silence their calls for democracy.\u00a0\u00a0Only a national dialogue inclusive of civil society and the democratic movement will lead Belarus out of its current political stalemate to a future democratic and prosperous Belarus.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the May 21 commemoration of the Day of Political Prisoners in Belarus,\u00a0we reiterate our calls for the unconditional release of all political prisoners, an end to the regime\u2019s violence against its own citizens, and a national dialogue inclusive of civil society and the democratic movement, leading to free and fair elections under international observation.\u00a0\u00a0We are committed to promoting accountability, and to that end have designated hundreds of Belarusian entities and officials for sanctions or visa restrictions for their involvement in human rights abuses, the undermining of democracy in Belarus, electoral fraud, or corruption.\u00a0\u00a0The perpetrators of these human rights abuses will be held to account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>05\/18\/2022 11:16 AM EDT Antony J.&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48390,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48389\/revisions\/48390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}