The Regional Academy for Democratic Development demands that the competent authorities refrain from expelling Russian Elena Koposova and from making a decision to extradite Belarusian journalist and opposition activist Andrej Gnjot to the dictatorial regime in Belarus. The reasons for their threatened expulsion from Serbia and extradition to Belarus are legally non-existent, undemocratic, and violate basic human rights.
Elena Koposova has been living in Serbia with her family for four years and in 2022, she signed an anti-war appeal, which was the reason the Security Information Agency marked her as a threat to Serbia’s security. Journalist and well-known opponent of the dictatorial Belarusian regime, Andrej Gnjot, who was detained by the police the moment he stepped into Serbia and has been in the District Prison in Belgrade for four months, was not even summoned to the court for a hearing when the Belarusian request for his extradition arrived.
We remind that this would not be the first time Serbia extradites political prisoners to undemocratic regimes. Despite the opposition of the United Nations and decisions by the European Court of Human Rights, individuals have been extradited to Turkey and Bahrain, where they face persecution, torture, and death. Just a few days after the murder of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the expulsion of Koposova from Serbia and the extradition of Gnjot to Belarus would be a message that the regime in Serbia supports the persecution and inhumane treatment of critics of dictatorial regimes in Russia and Belarus.
Novi Sad, February 22, 2024.