Belarussian authorities' assets may be frozen

The European Parliament on Thursday called on EU governments to freeze Belarussian authorities' assets if the republic does not improve its human rights situation.

In a strongly worded resolution, EU lawmakers also repeated their call for member states to deny visas to Belarussian officials who the EU holds responsible for human rights abuses and persecution, and condemned the regime of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko for what they called indiscriminate attacks on the media, minority activists and religion leaders.

They also expressed their concerns over the persecution of journalists. It was EU lawmakers' second resolution on Belarus in three months, the AP reports.