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European Humanities University ready to enroll expelled Belarusian students

European Humanities University (EHU) is ready to offer enrollment in any course to citizens of Belarus who may be expelled from Belarusian universities for participation in the December 19 post-election protest in Minsk, said the press office of the Belarusian private university in exile in Vilnius, Lithuania, BelaPAN said. 

According to the Union of Students of Lithuania, 11 EHU students were arrested over the December 19 demonstration. Ten of them were sentenced to between 10 and 15 days in jail.

EHU student Anastasiya (Nasta) Palazhanka and professor Alyaksandr Fyaduta are among the 25 people who have been charged over the demonstration with organizing mass riots and participating in them and are facing up to 15 years in prison.

Volha Marzhewskaya, a citizen of Lithuania who studies at Belarusian State Teachers' Training University in Minsk, served a 10-day jail sentence for attending the demonstration, the press office said.

On December 20, the Senate of European Humanities University issued a statement calling for the immediate release of the EHU students and professor and all other arrested protesters.

Polish Education Minister Barbara Kudrycka said last week that about 50 Polish universities were ready to offer enrollment on a non-fee-paying basis to expelled Belarusian students.

The Belarusian education ministry so far has not replied to BelaPAN's inquiry about the number of students of Belarusian higher educational institutions who were arrested over the December 19 protest.

Founded in 1994 in Minsk, European Humanities University was stripped of its license by order of the Belarusian education minister in July 2004. Alyaksandr Lukashenka explained afterward that the government had closed EHU because it had made its students pro-Western and had refused to follow the government's ideology and education policies. He accused the institution of failing to "train students like other schools did," and making "our Belarusian kids" victim to "adults' political games."

In 2005, European Humanities University was reestablished in Vilnius thanks to international political and financial support.