A Young Brit Held Hostage by a Dictatorship

At the moment a drama is unfolding that for some reason has not caught the attention of the British Press. You won’t find mention of it in either conservative or liberal newspapers. A child born in England has become a political hostage in Belarus, often called “Europe’s last dictatorship.”

This story began in the early 2000s when British embassy staff member Martin Fenner, who was working at the British Embassy in Belarus, married a Belarusian embassy official named Yulia. Since then, she has lived permanently in the UK. In 2009, the couple had a son Oliver Michael Fenner, followed by a second child a few years later. As it became known from sources close to the Fenner family their life was calm until March 2024, when the mother of the family had to go to Belarus for personal reasons. Yulia took 14-year-old Oliver with her to show him her homeland.

However, the timing of the trip couldn’t have been worse. Recently, political repressions in Belarus against those opposing the regime and advocating for a democratic path for the country have been intensifying. Yulia became one of the victims of this crackdown. Upon crossing the Belarusian border, she was arrested by the authorities and separated from her son, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

The Fenner family reports that Belarusian authorities accuse Yulia of supporting the protests that erupted in Belarus. However, she couldn’t have done this as she had been living in the UK the entire time merely watching the events unfold in her homeland with concern.

Legal experts hired by the family will certainly scrutinize these charges. But the main question which remains unanswered is what has happened to young Oliver Michael Fenner? His father Martin has made repeated attempts to find out and to secure permission from the Belarusian authorities to bring his son back to the UK. However, in response he received only references to the complicated and bureaucratic legal system of the country, which allegedly does not allow them to issue such permission. But what father would not try to rescue his son?

What’s most troubling is that Martin Fenner is being forced to fight for his son alone. Family members and lawyers point out that the British Foreign Office has so far failed to make adequate efforts to assist Mr. Fenner in his battle against the Belarusian dictatorship. Even if the Foreign Office has no other means of pressuring Belarus, it could at least remind Minsk of its obligation to adhere to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Belarus signed back in 1990. Article 9 of that document clearly states:

“States Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child.”

But what interests can justify the separation of young Oliver Michael Fenner from his father and mother, who is now languishing in a Belarusian prison? Neither Martin Fenner, nor the boy’s other relatives, nor British diplomats, who seem indifferent to this outrageous situation, have an answer to this question.