EU unveils updated list of Belarusians subject to sanctions

The European Union unveiled on Tuesday its updated list of Belarusian citizens subject to travel bans and asset freezes over the ongoing crackdown on government opponents.

Nineteen more people were added to the list by the EU Foreign Affairs Council on March 21. There are now 175 people on the list.

Among the individuals added to the list this week are Valery Haydukevich, commander of the Interior Troops and deputy interior minister, and Syarhey Hureyew, head of the interior ministry's Preliminary Investigation Department and deputy interior minister, as well as Deputy Justice Ministers Ala Bodak, Alyaksandr Simanaw and Ihar Tushynski, and Uladzimir Kachanaw, an aide to the justice minister.

The updated list also features Viktar Skurat, chief of the Minsk city office of the interior ministry's Guard Department; Syarhey Ivanow, deputy chief of the recruitment unit of the Minsk city police department's Ideological Work and Human Resources Office; and Raman Kadzin, chief of the Combat and Technical Support Company of the Minsk city police department's Special-Task Police Regiment.

Added to the list also were Volha Kamar, a judge of the Frunzenski District Court of Minsk who sentenced post-election protester Vasil Parfyankow to four years in prison, and Tatsyana Charkas, a judge of the same court who also sentenced post-election protesters Alyaksandr Atroshchankaw, Alyaksandr Malchanaw and Dzmitry Novik to prison.

Anton Zaharowski and Tatsyana Maladtsova, who were the prosecutors in the cases, were included into the list too.

The other new additions to the blacklist are Mikhail Lyabedzik, first deputy chief editor of the Sovetskaya Belorussiya government-controlled newspaper; Henadz Padhayski, principal of Minsk State Polytechnic College; Pyotr Kukharchyk, rector of Belarusian State Teachers' Training University; Mikhail Batura, rector of Belarusian State University of Informatics and Electronic Engineering; Mechyslaw Chasnowski, rector of Aleksandr Pushkin Brest State University; and Tamara Alpeyeva, rector of International Humanities and Economics Institute. The educators were blacklisted for ordering the expulsion of students who took part in the post-election demonstration.