Brussels, 24 March 2010

Wilfried Martens, President of the European People’s Party (EPP) and Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, EPP Vice-President, expressed today their support to Anatoly Lebedko, Chairman of the United Civil Party Belarus, an EPP member-party. In February this year, Mr. Lebedko was arrested for standing-up publicly for minority rights, against the repression of the Union of Poles in Belarus, and in favour of fundamental rights such as freedom of assembly, thought, and expression:

“We express our wholehearted support to Anatoly Lebedko. We denounce the unfounded court case being directed against him. We appeal to the Belarusian authorities to withdraw the repressive and unfounded accusations, which only serve to highlight the lack of democracy. We call for a fair and transparent trial that respects fully human rights and the rule of law. We will be watching closely, along with the rest of Europe, tomorrow’s (Thursday, 25 March 2010) court case.”

Note to editors

The EPP is the largest and most influential European-level political party of the centre-right, which currently includes 72 member-parties from 39 countries, the Presidents of the Commission, Council, and Parliament, 13 EU and 5 non-EU heads of state and government, 13 members of the European Commission and the largest Group in the European Parliament.

For more information

Kostas Sasmatzoglou, EPP Spokesman, Tel.   +32-2-2854147  +32-2-2854147    +32-2-2854147  +32-2-2854147  

Javier Jiménez, EPP Press Officer, Tel:   +32-475480446  +32-475480446    +32-475480446  +32-475480446