Artists urge Serbia not to extradite to Belarus a critic of its authoritarian regime

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — More than 70 European artists and film directors have signed an open letter urging Serbia not to extradite to Belarus a filmmaker and a prominent critic of the authoritarian government in Minsk, who is wanted in his home country for alleged tax evasion.

The letter, released on Monday, said that Andrei Hniot could face “imprisonment, torture and even death penalty” in Belarus.

Among those who signed the letter are French actress and president of the European Film Academy Juliette Binoche, Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich, Russian theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov and Ukrainian director Oleh Sentsov, both previously prosecuted in Russia — Belarus' close ally — on charges widely seen as politically motivated.

Hniot is a prominent Belarusian film director and an outspoken critic of the country's authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. He filmed mass protests that erupted in 2020 against Lukashenko’s disputed reelection, and covered the harsh crackdown on dissent the government unleashed in response, before fleeing the country to Serbia.

Serbian authorities arrested Hniot last year on Oct. 30 at Belgrade airport, based on an Interpol warrant issued at the request of the Belarusian authorities for alleged tax evasion, and a court ruled to extradite the film director to Belarus.

Hniot unsuccessfully contested the Serbian court ruling, and his final appeal is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, the letter in his support said.

The director and activist told one of the court hearings that Lukshenko’s regime wanted to punish him for his activism. “We openly opposed the dictatorship, human rights violations, and electoral fraud in Belarus in 2020,” he said. The letter in his support said that requesting an Interpol warrant is “a tactic repeatedly used by the Lukashenko regime to track down pro-democracy activists around the world.”

"It is illegal under international law to send someone to a country where they will most certainly face torture,” said Volia Chajkouskaya, a co-founder of the Belarusian Independent Film Academy (BIFA) and one of the organizers of a campaign in Hniot's support.

“Now, it is a matter of life and death for this filmmaker. If extradited, Andrei faces torture, years in inhumane conditions or worse,” prominent Polish film director Agnieszka Holland said in a statement.

Several international organizations including Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Federation for Human Rights have also called on Serbia not to extradite Hniot.

Belarus' oldest and most prominent human rights group Viasna has reported that over 65,000 people in Belarus — a nation of 9.5 million — have been subjected to political repressions since 2020. It has designated 1,372 people currently imprisoned in Belarus as political prisoners.

One of them is the group's founder Ales Bialiatski, who in 2022 won the Nobel Peace Prize. At least six political prisoners have died behind bars, according to Viasna.