Azernews.Az

(Newswires, January 12) – The EU's top foreign affairs official, Catherine Ashton, says a decision will be made on sanctions against Belarus at the end of the month. Meanwhile, the Belarus authorities have closed down a radio station.

The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, met leading representatives of the Belarus opposition on Wednesday. Among them were family members of opposition candidates in the recent presidential elections who have been detained, as well as former presidential candidates and the first head of state of the country after its independence from the Soviet Union.

Ashton underlined the EU's support for those detained for political reasons after the election on December 19, which was won by Alexander Lukashenko. Following the poll, which was seen as unfair by the opposition, security forces arrested opposition candidates as well as hundreds of others who took part in protest demonstrations.

Ashton repeated her condemnation of the government's action when she met the foreign minister of Belarus, Sergei Martynov and, according to a statement, told him that the EU was looking into "appropriate measures" to deal with the post-election violence.