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President Ilves: releasing one of the Belarusian opposition leaders shows that the common foreign policy of the European Union can be efficient

15.04.2012

"I am pleased to hear of the release of Andrei Sannikov, one of the opposition leaders of Belarus and former president candidate, after he spent almost a year and a half in prison as a political prisoner," told the President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, to the BNS News Agency.

Releasing political prisoners has been one of the demands made to the Minsk regime by the European Union.

"The release of Sannikov shows that the common foreign policy of the European Union can be successful," emphasised the Estonian Head of State.

"According to the information available to international human rights organisations, the Belarusian authorities are keeping approximately a dozen people imprisoned for voicing their opinions. We can cannot speak of a normalization of relations between the European Union and Belarus before the unconditional release of these prisoners," President Ilves said.

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