Serbian appeals court overturns ruling to extradite to Belarus a critic of its authoritarian regime

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — An appeals court in Serbia on Wednesday overturned an earlier court ruling that a prominent critic of the authoritarian government in Belarus should be extradited to that country, and said that the case must be retried.

Serbian authorities arrested Belarusian filmmaker Andrei Hniot on Oct. 30 at Belgrade airport, based on an Interpol warrant issued at the request of the Belarusian authorities for alleged tax evasion. In June, the Higher Court in Belgrade ruled to extradite him to Belarus.

The appeals court in Belgrade said on its website on Wednesday that the first-instance court provided no firm evidence that Hniot evaded taxes in his country and sent the case back to the first-instance court “for a new decision.”

This is the third time that the appeals court overturns a ruling by a Higher Court that the 41-year-old should be extradited to Belarus.

“If the court again rules that conditions are met for his extradition, we will again file an appeal,” Hniot’s lawyer Filip Sofijanic told N1 television.

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.

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The director and activist told one of the court hearings in Belgrade that Lukshenko’s regime wanted to punish him for his activism and that he could face torture or even death if returned to Belarus.

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

More than 70 European artists and film directors have signed an open letter urging Serbia not to extradite Hniot to Belarus. Belgrade has maintained close relations with Minsk and Moscow despite Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.

“We openly opposed the dictatorship, human rights violations, and electoral fraud in Belarus in 2020,” the letter said, adding that requesting an Interpol warrant is “a tactic repeatedly used by the Lukashenko regime to track down pro-democracy activists around the world.”

Hniot has been released from a Serbian prison but is only allowed to leave his apartment for one hour a day and must wear a tracking ankle bracelet.