BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/09/2007

Belarusian Opposition Activist Jailed For Two Years For Internet Article

Opposition activist Andrey Klimau on August 1 was sentenced to two years in prison for insulting the president and calling for revolution in an article posted on a website earlier this year, AP and Belapan reported on September 7. "The authorities closed the trial and the verdict became known only after a month," Klimau's wife, Tatsyana Leanovich-Klimava, told journalists. She said she learned of the sentence, Klimau's third in the past 10 years, in connection with an effort to visit her husband, who has been jailed since his arrest in April. She also said he suffered a heart attack while in custody. Klimau, who was a legislator in the Supreme Soviet of Belarus in 1995-96, put his signature under an impeachment motion against President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, following the 1996 constitutional referendum. Klimau was arrested in February 1998 and sentenced in a trial widely believed to be politically motivated to six years in prison on charges of embezzlement and forgery. He served four years in prison and was released in March 2002. In June 2005, Klimau was sentenced to 18 months of "restricted freedom" over his role in organizing an opposition demonstration in Minsk. He was released in December 2006. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/09/3-cee/cee-100907.asp