“The Coordinating Council, which includes representatives of various sectors of Belarusian society, has approached the authorities with an offer of dialogue, but the authorities have responded with the opening of a criminal case,” EU Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nabila Masral said in a statement.
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“By doing so, the Belarussian authorities have once again resorted to intimidation for political reasons.”
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The EU is currently preparing sanctions against Belarusian officials responsible for falsifying the presidential election and suppressing protests.
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“We hope that the Belarussian authorities will end this criminal case and instead engage in dialogue with a view to finding a peaceful solution to the current crisis,” Masrali said.
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The Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus said on Thursday that a criminal case has been initiated in connection with the establishment of the opposition coordination council.
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A criminal case has been instituted under Article of the Criminal Code, which provides for a penalty for incitement to acts aimed at harming the national security interests of the state.
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Maxim Znak, a member of the presidium of the opposition coordination council, told the Interfax news agency that the council expresses the civic position of the society and continues to operate.
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“The council is continuing its work, but we understand that within the criminal case, the authorities have a myriad of tools to complicate the work of the council,” Znak said.
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He stressed that the council does not pose a threat to Belarus’ national security.
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Belarus’s Prosecutor General Alexander Koņuk said on Thursday that the activities of the opposition coordination council were unconstitutional and aimed at seizing state power.
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According to the official results of the presidential election in Belarus on August 9, the current head of state Alexander Lukashenko won 80.1% of the vote and the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovska – 10.1%, but the opposition believes that the election results are fake and Tikhanovska has won the election convincingly.
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Protests against electoral fraud and President Lukashenko, who have often escalated into protests by security forces, have continued in the capital, Minsk, since 9 August. During the protests, several thousand people were detained and several hundred were injured. Workers in many companies have gone on strike.
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