Belarus cannot return to the Council of Europe without free and democratic presidential elections.
Tomas Jirsa, a vice chairman of the Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security of the Czech Senate, said on August 20 in Minsk at a meeting with Nina Mazai, the head of the Commission for International Affairs and National Security of the "council of the republic" of the "national assembly" of Belarus, that the Czech Republic would like to see Belarus in the Council of Europe, BelaPAN informs.
Mazai said the Belarusian MPs were ready to contribute to activization of the bilateral relations. Jirsa noted in response that the Council of Europe was actively discussing the issue of Belarus’s presence in the organization.
"You need to solve a problem of death penalty and carry out fair elections, and then this issue can be settled," the Czech MP said.
