I am writing to protest the abuse of Mr. Anatol Lyabedzka, a leading advocate for democracy in Belarus and a man whom we at the American Enterprise Institute are proud to call a friend. On Tuesday, October 19, riot police and KGB agents grabbed Mr. Lyabedzka off the street, dragged him into a nearby restaurant, and beat him up for taking part in a peaceful demonstration against your rule in Belarus.

This is not the first time that your authorities have mistreated Mr. Lyabedzka. On November 5, 2002, just after he departed the American Embassy in Minsk, Mr. Lyabedzka was abducted by armed thugs and detained by the KGB. He had been at the embassy to receive an invitation to the conference "The Axis of Evil: Belarus--The Missing Link," which was organized by the AEI’s New Atlantic Initiative.

More than a decade after the Soviet collapse, Belarus continues to operate as a police state.  Your government does not respect human or civil rights. Your political opponents have “disappeared,” newspapers have been shut down, churches have burned, ambassadors have been thrown out of their residences. Opposing your dictatorship remains a matter of life and death, as the beating of Mr. Lyabedzka was clearly intended to remind him.

We condemn the abuse of Mr. Lyabedzka and express our solidarity with all those seeking to be free from your tyranny. We look forward to the day when you are brought to justice and Belarus joins the family of free and democratic nations. In the meantime, we will carefully monitor your actions.

Christopher DeMuth is the president of AEI.