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Directors and actors urge Serbia not to extradite activist to Belarus

Dozens from European film industry and other artists write letter warning Andrei Gnyot could face death penalty

Gnyot, a film-maker who was instrumental in organising an alliance of athletes to oppose the dictatorial rule of Alexander Lukashenko, was detained on arrival in Serbia last year after Belarus issued a warrant for his arrest on tax evasion charges via Interpol. “The Serbian authorities should consult international human rights organisations, which in this case are calling for the immediate release of Gnyot, emphasising that the charges are politically motivated,” said the award-winning Polish director Agnieszka Holland, who also signed the letter. Savelau pointed to the fact that in 2021, authorities in Minsk tried to issue a warrant for the political leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled the country after a crackdown on a protest movement in 2020 that followed her defeat by Lukashenko in a presidential election widely seen as rigged.

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