BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
25/02/2008
Jailed leader goes on hunger strike
Source ::: REUTERS
MINSK Belarus's most prominent detainee, Alexander Kozulin, whose release is demanded by Western countries, launched a hunger strike yesterday to secure permission to attend his wife's funeral.
Kozulin challenged President Alexander Lukashenko's re-election in 2006 but was jailed for 5 ? years after helping organise protests afterwards.
His wife Irina, 48, died of cancer late on Saturday. The family's lawyer said her funeral was planned for tomorrow. "Alexander Kozulin has launched a hunger strike in connection with delays in granting him compassionate leave," family lawyer Igor Rynkevich said. "The family has told me that without Kozulin there will be no funeral."
Kozulin, an academic, is one of two remaining detainees described as political prisoners by the West, which says they must be freed to improve ties with Lukashenko.
The other is Andrei Kim, held over January protests by small businessmen.
The president proposed Kozulin leave for Germany to secure treatment for his wife, but she rejected any suggestion she should leave the country to secure her husband's release.
Source:
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