Over 30 members of the European Parliament have called for sanctions on Belarusian leadership over pre-election crackdown, Lithuanian MEP Petras Auštrevičius tweeted on Tuesday.
The MEPs called on Brussels to “review and expand the list of sanctions against Belarusian officials and companies involved in curtailing human and democratic rights during this election campaign”.
A Group of more than 30 #MEPs urge to review and expand the list of sanctions against #Belarusian officials and companies involved in curtailing human and democratic rights during this election campaign. They also expressed support of #Magnitsky Act on #EU-level.
— Petras Austrevicius (@petras_petras) July 7, 2020
The letter was addressed to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen,and EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, according to the Poland-based Belarusian television Belsat.
“The Belarusian government led by Alexander Lukashenko has recently restricted democratic rights in the country in the run-up of the presidential election scheduled for August, 9. He has jailed presidential candidates, members of the opposition and ordinary citizens who showed up at the pickets to collect signatures. There were also reports about arrests of journalists and bloggers,” the letter reads, according to Belsat.
In 2016, Brussels lifted sanctions on 170 Belarusian officials and business figures.
Belarus is due to hold the presidential election on August 9.
Read more: Is Belarus facing a 'slipper' revolution?
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