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The Council of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages,

(extracted from http://www.eblul.org/gp/resolution-en.zip)

In its meeting in Dublin on 3 February 2001,

Having been informed that the Court of justice in Athens sentenced Mr. Sotiris Bletsas to 15 months of imprisonment for "dissemination of false information", where the alleged false information consisted of the factual existence of a language (Vlach) included in the European Commission's Euromosaic report;

Stressing that Mr. Bletsas only distributed informative material on minority languages in Europe, produced by the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages, and financed by the European Commission,

Expresses its deep concern at the court's decision, which appears to violate the fundamental right of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Greek Constitution as well as by the European Convention of Human rights

Expresses solidarity with Mr. Bletsas,

Delegates to the Board of Directors to adopt any further measure to safeguard the Bureau's initiatives as well as the right for minority language speakers to protect and promote their language in all EU member States.