Dozens of European directors, actors and other artists have called on Serbian authorities not to extradite the Belarusian activist to Belarus. Open Letter In an article published on Monday, the artists warned that Andrei Gnyot would face “imprisonment, torture and even the death penalty” if he was extradited to Belarus.
Mr Gnöt, a filmmaker who helped organize a coalition of athletes opposed to the dictatorial regime of Alexander Lukashenko, was detained on his arrival in Serbia last year after Belarus issued an arrest warrant for him through Interpol on tax evasion charges, charges he claims are political.
Gnònhot was released under house arrest in June after seven months in detention in Belgrade. After multiple rulings against him, a Serbian court will hear his final appeal on Tuesday. If the appeal is rejected, Gnònhot could be deported at any time, with a veto by the country’s justice minister being his final chance to avoid extradition.
“He is known for making documentaries during the Belarus 2020 protests, recording the athletes’ appeals for free and fair elections. He is being prosecuted by the authoritarian regime in Belarus for these activities,” the letter said. The letter was signed by French actress Juliette Binoche, president of the European Film Academy, Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich, Russian film director Kirill Serebrennikov and Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, a former political prisoner in Russia.
“The Serbian authorities should consult with international human rights organisations, who demand Gniud’s immediate release in this case and stress that the charges are politically motivated,” said Agnieszka Holland, an award-winning Polish director who signed the letter. “This is now a matter of life and death for the filmmaker. If extradited, Andrej faces torture and years in inhuman conditions or worse.”
Actress Mitya Savellau, who compiled the letter, said there was no doubt that the Belarusian regime was misusing Interpol to request arrest warrants in political cases despite the agency’s ban and to make cases look like economic crimes.
Savelau pointed to the fact that in 2021, authorities in Minsk tried to issue an arrest warrant for Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya, a political leader who fled the country following a crackdown on 2020 protests after she lost to Lukashenko in a presidential election that was widely seen as fraudulent.
“While Interpol has declined to investigate, it has revealed tactics that President Lukashenko has repeatedly used to pursue democratic activists in Belarus,” Saberau said.
“In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and Lukashenko’s crackdown on protests, between 300,000 and 500,000 Belarusians have had to flee the country in search of safety, and we are all at risk of finding ourselves in Andrei’s situation.”
In June, a number of Belarusian athletes told The Guardian that Gnyot had been active in organizing the anti-regime athletes’ movement. “Andrey played a big role. Many of the athletes didn’t know how to organize or make videos, but he helped us a lot,” said swimmer Alyaksandra Herasimenia, who won two silver medals at the 2012 London Olympics and was later sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison. She now lives in exile.
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Aware that criminal proceedings might be brought against him, Gnöt left Belarus in 2021 and later moved to Thailand. He was arrested at Belgrade airport in October last year after arriving in Serbia to shoot a television commercial.
In a message sent from Belgrade, Gnöt said he had appealed to Serbia’s justice minister to block his extradition if the court rules against him, but that after a lengthy legal battle he “has no feelings.”
“Ten months of waiting for my execution have exhausted all my emotions. I only fight for truth and justice – for my life and the lives of other Belarusians – because torture and death await us under the dictatorship,” he said.
