Belarus Updates: Secretary of State Clinton Meets Activists

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Belarussian and Belarussian-American human rights activists, including the President of "We Remember", Irina Krasovskaya, and Belarus Free Theater co-founder Natalya Kolyada.

According to Washington's official statement, Clinton condemned the conduct of the 19 December Presidential election and the crackdown on political leaders, activists, civil society representatives and journalists. She stressed her concern for detainees and for their family members. Clinton promised, "The United States will continue its support for and engagement with the people of Belarus."

Minsk Central District Court has refused to withdraw the "preventive detention orders" for Presidential candidates Vladimir Neklyaev and Andrei Sannikov.

The state security service KGB has visited the wife of the detained Dmitry Bandarenko, Sannikov's election agent, to ask her “to influence her husband” in cooperating with authorities. Olga Bandarenka said that, if she agreed, her husband would be released on his recognisance and would be sentenced “to a term which would be not as long as Sannikov’s".

University student Yulian Misiukevich was taken for interrogation by the KGB on Thursday after university examinations. His current whereabouts are unknown.