31 March 2008
Czech authorities deny political asylum to Belarusian opposition activist Shydlowski

The Czech authorities have denied political asylum to Belarusian opposition youth Alyaksey Shydlowski and expelled him back to Lithuania.

The opposition activist, who has a vast record of what is widely believed politically motivated convictions, fled to Lithuania after the Belarusian police brought a criminal charge of hooliganism against him in late 2007 in connection with his scuffle with a store assistant over Alyaksandr Lukashenka's image, which Mr. Shydlowski claims was orchestrated.

The activist told BelaPAN that he held a long-term Lithuanian visa and had traveled to the Czech Republic with a visa valid for three days. When declining to consider his application for political asylum, the Czech authorities cited an international accord under which the activist should have applied for the asylum to the Lithuanian authorities that had issued him the long-term visa.
Mr. Shydlowski had spent a month and a half at a Czech camp for asylum seekers.

He said that the Lithuanian authorities had first wanted to expel him to Belarus, "unaware of details of his case," but then agreed to send him to Ukraine.

He said that he would not return to Belarus.

"I would be arrested right on the border," Mr. Shydlowski said. "I am on the list. My lawyer has learned that I am wanted by the Belarusian police and the investigation of the case against me is 'frozen.' My Lithuanian visa is about to expire and I will apply for a new Czech visa so that they have no formal reasons for declining to handle my application."

The criminal charge over the scuffle may land the activist in prison for up to 10 years.

In the late 1990s, Mr. Shydlowski served 18 months in prison for spray-painting anti-Lukashenka slogans in the city of Stowbtsy, Minsk region. In 2001, he was sentenced to a two-year community service term for spray-painting "Zubr" on residential buildings in central Minsk.

The opposition activist served three jail terms on petty hooliganism charges last year. He was jailed ahead of key opposition street protests on all of the occasion.