PRAGUE: Volkswagen’s Skoda Auto won’t sponsor this 12 months’s ice hockey world championship if the occasion is held in Belarus, because of the host nation’s current human rights document, the carmaker stated on Saturday.
Belarus, which is because of host the event in Could-June, is going through requires it to be stripped of the occasion due to President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on protesters opposing his re-election.
“We have been a proud accomplice for 28 years. However we additionally respect & promote all human rights,” the carmaker stated on Twitter.
“Subsequently, SKODA will withdraw from sponsoring the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship if Belarus is confirmed to be co-hosting the occasion,” Skoda stated.
Denying Belarus the appropriate to host the occasion would deprive Lukashenko, an avid hockey fan and participant, of staging a significant worldwide occasion in Belarus for the primary time since his disputed re-election final August. His opponents say the vote was rigged.
