BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
19/02/2008
Belarusian President Releases Another Political Prisoner
Andrey Klimau, an opposition politician who in August 2007 was sentenced to two years in prison for insulting the president and calling for revolution in an article posted on the Internet, was unexpectedly released on February 15, Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. Klimau told journalists on February 16 in Minsk that he was released in pursuance of the February 11 decree issued by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Klimau said his release came to him as "complete surprise," since his hopes for freedom had been dashed by Lukashenka's recent statement that "the issue of political prisoners in Belarus is closed." Klimau, who was a legislator in the Supreme Soviet of Belarus in 1995-96, was jailed twice before: for four years of six-year sentence he received in February 1998 on charges of embezzlement and forgery, and in June 2005 for 18 months of "restricted freedom" over participation in organizing an opposition demonstration in Minsk. Along with former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin and journalist Alyaksandr Zdzvizhkou, Klimau is regarded by the West as a person persecuted for political reasons. AM
Source:
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2008/02/3-cee/cee-190208.asp
Archive
