BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/04/2006

Ignoring critics, lukashenko to be inaugurated

Minsk , April . 8 (BNA) Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, whose re election was branded a fraud by Europe, the US and the country's opposition, was being inaugurated Saturday for a new five year term.

To coincide with the inauguration, Belarus authorities said they would release nearly all remaining opposition activists jailed for protesting after the March 19 election, which gave Lukashenko a third term with an official 83 per cent of the popular vote. But prison authorities also said that former presidential candidate and opposition co-leader Aleksandr Kozulin would remain in custody. He is charged with publicly calling for the storming of a Minsk jail after hundreds of opposition supporters were arrested in the election's aftermath. Kozulin risks up to five years in prison.

Source:

http://english.bna.bh/?ID=43445

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