Olga Karach, a prominent Belarusian activist who heads the Nash Dom (Our House) NGO, has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) over Lithuania’s refusal to grant her asylum.
“We appealed when the court’s decision not to grant the asylum application was final. We appealed to the ECHR because this decision is baseless,” the activist’s lawyer, Rytis Satkauskas, told BNS.
According to him, the complaint filed on February 4 this year alleges violations of Karach’s rights to a fair trial, protection from torture, and protection of her private life and family.
“Also the right to freedom of thought and association, since the activities of which Olga is accused were carried out precisely in her capacity as a human rights defender, as the head of an association for the defence of human rights,” the lawyer said.
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Early in January, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania upheld the lower court’s ruling denying asylum to Karach.
“It [the court’s decision] is primarily based on the fact that Olga Karach allegedly poses a threat to the state of Lithuania and its security, because as an activist she communicated with a Russian ombudsman, who is a person from the environment of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,” Karach’s lawyer said.
“That threat is imaginary,” Satkauskas stressed.
The Migration Department denied Karach asylum last August, citing as the reason the State Security Department’s conclusion that her residence in the country posed a national security threat due to her alleged ties with Russian intelligence.
However, the migration body then granted the activist a temporary residence permit in Lithuania on humanitarian grounds, which can be extended.
Karach has confirmed that she was warned by the State Security Department’s officers last spring over her ties with Russian intelligence, but she refrained from elaborating further on this issue.
The activist, who has been receiving residence permits in Lithuania since 2014, applied for asylum last year.
Nash Dom says it provides humanitarian, psychological and other assistance to Belarusians both in their homeland and in Lithuania, and also monitors human rights violations.
The organisation was declared extremist by Minsk in 2022. Karach was put on the “terrorist list” by the Belarusian KGB in 2021.
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