Andrei Sannikovв's s pro bono international legal team, which includes Freedom Now and lawyers with the international law firm Hogan Lovells, filed a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of the imprisoned Belarusian opposition leader. The team hopes to obtain an opinion from the UN Working Group that the Government of Belarus' detention of Mr. Sannikov is in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Belarusian government continued detention of Mr. Sannokov is a violation of international law because he was targeted as a result of his legitimate activity as an opposition leader and because the government failed to meet basic international due process standards, said Freedom Now Executive Director Maran Turner. The Belarusian government should immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Sannikov; we are confident that the UN Working Group will come to the same conclusion.

Authorities in Belarus arrested Mr. Sannikov following the country's 2010 presidential election, in which Mr. Sannikov was a candidate. On the evening of December 19, 2010, after the polls closed in yet another election that failed to meet international standards, Mr. Sannikov joined thousands of Belarusians peacefully demonstrating in downtown Minsk. While addressing the crowed, he urged demonstrators to remain peaceful as they expressed their frustration with President Lukashenka's government. During the crackdown, police pinned Mr. Sannikov to the ground with a riot shield, repeatedly jumping on the shield and injuring his legs. Mr. Sannikov was arrested while traveling to a hospital to seek medical treatment for his injuries. Mr. Sannikovв's wife, journalist Iryna Khalip, was arrested also and after being held under highly restrictive house arrest for some months, she was given conditional release.

While Mr. Sannikov awaited trial, authorities subjected him to pervasive emotional and psychological abuse. His first lawyer was disbarred after raising concerns about this treatment. On May 12, 2011, after a trial that failed to meet international standards for due process, the court sentenced Mr. Sannikov to five years in prison on charges of organizing and participating in a mass disorder.

Freedom Now represents Mr. Sannikov with a team of lawyers from the Washington, D.C. and Houston offices of the global legal practice Hogan Lovells.