Ales Bialiatski, Chairman of the Human Rights Centre Vyasna, Vyasna’s lawyer Uladzimir Labkovich and his partner Nina Labkovich, as well as the Vice Chairman of Vyasna, Valyantsin Stefanovich were transferred to pretrial detention on 17 July. They were arrested on 14 July alongside other human rights defenders, members of opposition groups and civil society leaders, following raids by Belarus law enforcement officers as part of the systemic crackdown of civil society and human rights activists that has been ongoing since the post-election protests of August 2020.
