The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on all EU member states to implement and widen sanctions against Belarusian officials responsible for serious human rights violations, RIA Novosti reports.
The PACE draft resolution on the situation in Belarus urges the Belarusian authorities to release all political prisoners, “refrain from putting pressure on political prisoners, guarantee proper legal and medical assistance to all prisoners and to allow their families adequate access to them.”
PACE Special Rapporteur Marieluise Beck said that the term “political prisoner” refers to “political activists, human rights defenders, journalists and even ordinary citizens making use of their right to participate in peaceful demonstrations, who ended up being imprisoned.”
With regard to “targeted sanctions,” she said such measures do not “punish” a country and its population as a whole but "single out those officials who are personally responsible for acts of repression and "are a particularly useful tool."
