Dear Friends:

Today the court of Minsk region has commuted the sentence for our father, the former Ambassador of Belarus to Latvia, ex-Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Mikhail Marinich, and reduced the term of imprisonment from 5 years to 3 years and 6 months.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of you for the attention you showed to our father's case and the support we received from you during the trial. Only because of the active participation of the Belarusian non-governmental organizations and the international community representatives, as well as the strong statements made by many of you with the demand to free Mikhail Marinich, the imprisonment term for our father has been reduced.

Our organization, Freedom to Political Prisoners, will continue working on defending Mikhail Marinich and other Belarusian prisoners of conscience, demanding their release. We will continue organising actions of protest, informing the Belarusian society and the international community about developments on the political prisoners' cases. In close cooperation with the other members of the Council of Civil Initiatives Free Belarus, independent Belarusian and foreign media, and with your support we can count on further success in the future.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Igor and Pavel Marinich,
sons of the detained Mikhail Marinich

Background information:
On December 30 the court of Minsk region found former minister of foreign economic relations, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Belarus guilty of misappropriation office equipment, which had been given for temporary use by US Embassy to the Belarusian public association "Business Initiative" headed by him. The politician has been sentenced to five years of imprisonment in medium-security colony and confiscation of property. At present the political prisoner is serving the term in the remand prison of the Interior Affairs department of the Minsk Executive Committee. The human rights organization "Amnesty International" recognized Mikhail Marinich prisoner of conscience. This status is granted to people persecuted for political reasons.

Download document: info_on_Free_Belarus.doc

Letters of support can be sent to the European Movement's special email address: secretariat@europeanmovement.eu

For further information, please consult: www.charter97.org

   Only together we will be able to gather enough momentum to pressure the Byelorussian government into freeing Mikhail.

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By filling in this form you can send a message of support to Mikhail or send a message to the EU Presidency asking them to continue the pressure on the Byelorussian government.

We will forward your messages to his two sons and to the EU Presidency.

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