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EHU stands in solidarity with student political prisoner Maryja Rabkova

Photo: Human Rights Center Viasna

On 17 September, European Humanities University (EHU) 3rd-year student Maryja Rabkova was detained in Minsk. In addition to her continuous academic success at EHU, Maryja is a coordinator of volunteers program at the Human Rights Center “Viasna”. The community of the Belarusian University-in-Exile expresses solidarity with the student and demands her immediate release.

EHU strongly condemns violence against civilians in Belarus. Since 9 August, 21 EHU graduates and 3 students have been unlawfully detained along with more than 10,500 peaceful Belarusians.

The EHU community expresses its concern for all the arbitrarily detained, in particular those internationally recognized as political prisoners, including Maryja Rabkova, a 3rd-year student of the International Law and European Union Law program. Hence, EHU joins the open statement of human rights organizations in Belarus and demands the immediate release of Maryja.

Currently, Maryja is under arrest in the Minsk Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 1. EHU urges the University community and partners to send her letters of support and solidarity at 2 Valadarskaha St., 220030 Minsk, Belarus (recipient: Maryja Rabkova).

EHU declares that all citizens of the Republic of Belarus, including students of the only independent Belarusian University, must be guaranteed freedom from arbitrary detention, from cruel and inhuman treatment in prisons and detention facilities, so that the standards of a fair trial are met, which includes the right to counsel and impartial investigation and hearing of her case. Ensuring fundamental human and civil rights and freedoms, as well as the right to vote, is a fundamental value of any society.

Without reliable information about the charges brought against Maryja, and not being able to evaluate the validity of the decisions of the persons conducting the criminal investigation, the EHU community, including faculty and students of the International Law and European Union Law program, dutifully reminds about the current provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, as well as binding international conventions, which require from all officials to implement and respect guarantees of individual rights and freedoms.

EHU calls on international partners to join the solidarity campaign with Maryja launched by the Human Rights Center “Viasna”.

EHU management informs that in order to ensure its students’ safety and the right to counsel, EHU will put efforts at providing a list of lawyers who can be contacted by students in case of persecution by the Belarusian authorities.

EHU continues to closely monitor the events in Belarus and is also ready to provide support to Belarus’ university students who will be subjected to repression by the authorities.

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