Congressman Cohen Chairs Helsinki Commission Hearing on Political Prisoners

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), the Ranking House Member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, today chaired a commission hearing on political prisoners. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s 56-nation Parliamentary Assembly appointed Congressman Cohen as its Special Representative on Political Prisoners in July 2022 and reappointed him last September.

Congressman Cohen was joined by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Helsinki Commission Chairman Joe Wilson. He concentrated in his opening statement on a friend of the commission, Russian dissident journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, imprisoned for his commentary on Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, baselessly charged in Russia with espionage this week.

One of the witnesses at the hearing was Hon. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya who was exiled from Belarus after winning the presidential election in August 2020 against Lukashenko. Congressman Cohen noted that Belarus’s Lukashenko regime is believed to be holding 1,600 political prisoners and heard testimony about incommunicado detention, intimidation and torture there and elsewhere. Witnesses advocated targeted sanctions against those holding political prisoners and praised the U.S. passage of the Magnitsky Act.

“We are on your side,” Cohen told the witnesses. “Thank you for your testimony and, more importantly, for your work.”

See Congressman Cohen’s opening statement here and questions to expert witnesses here.

Witnesses at today’s hearing were:

• Hon. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Leader of Democratic Belarus;
• Ms. Þórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir of Iceland, General Rapporteur for Political Prisoners of the Council of Europe; and
• Ms. Annie Wilcox Boyajian, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at Freedom House

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