Christian Democrats and Christian Youth Association demand release of Belarusian political prisoners at embassy

Budapest, January 6 (MTI) – The governing allied Christian Democrats (KDNP) and its youth arm IKSZ have urged the release of political prisoners in Belarus.

Speaking ahead of Orthodox Christmas, Bence Retvari, the deputy leader of KDNP, called Belarus the “last European dictatorship”.

“There is a regime in place there at the border of the European Union under which neither press freedom, nor free speech is guaranteed, just as a transparent election is not guaranteed either,” he said at a press conference in front of the Belarusian Embassy in Budapest on Monday.

Retvari noted that just before the last elections, opposition politicians had been allowed either only a very limited opportunity to appear in state media, and even then, they were not allowed to fully express their views.

The Belarusian authorities have blocked use of mobile phones and internet chat sites in many places to prevent people from reporting election fraud, he added.

Milan Palfalvi, the deputy leader of IKSZ, said that according to their information, eleven people have been kept in custody for an extended period of time for overtly political reasons in Belarus.

Closing the event, participants pinned up the photos of several Belarusian political prisoners on the embassy’s fence.

Photo: MTI – Attila Kovács

Source: http://hungarymatters.hu/