2024-07-04 04:56:43
CTK
Updated 11 hours ago
In Belarus, they released from prison the opposition politician Ryhor Kastusjou, who was found guilty by the court of an attempted coup in 2022 and sent to prison for ten years. After his arrest, doctors diagnosed him with cancer. This was reported by the Reuters agency and the Naša Niva server.
News of his release came a day after the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, signed an amnesty law and did not rule out the release of some seriously ill political prisoners, according to the state-run Belta news agency. The human rights organization Vyasna reports that there are over 1,400 people imprisoned for political reasons in the country.
The Belarusian opposition leader Svjatlana Cichanouská announced a little earlier on the X network that some political prisoners had been released in Belarus, but she did not specify their names or numbers.
“Today we witnessed the first cases of the release of some political prisoners in Belarus,” wrote Cichanouská, who lives in foreign exile. “However, many of them are still on the humanitarian list. News of the release is what we want to hear about every political prisoner,” the opposition leader added.
Today we witnessed the first cases of some political prisoners being released in #Belarus. I am glad to see these people free & reunited with their loved ones. But many are still on the humanitarian list. News of release is what we want to hear about every political prisoner. pic.twitter.com/qXnAS5PeZC
— Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (@Tsihanouskaya) July 3, 2024
Vyasna later said the amnesty excluded political prisoners, yet at least five were freed today. Among them are two women and three men, said the organization, according to which human rights defenders are withholding the names of those released for security reasons. Kastusjou’s release was confirmed by his family.
Ryhor Kastusjou led the opposition party Belarusian National Front and in 2010 was one of the candidates in the presidential elections. The Belarusian secret service KGB arrested him in 2021 and the court sent him to prison for ten years. Doctors subsequently diagnosed him with cancer, Reuters noted. Naša Niva also writes that his state of health has deteriorated significantly in prison and that he has an oncological disease. The AP agency previously wrote that the oppositionist behind bars is dying of this disease.
Cichanouska welcomed Kastusjou’s release. She reminded that she urgently needs medical help due to cancer. “Like many others who remain imprisoned. Political prisoners have paid a high price with their health. Now they need rehabilitation and support,” she added.
Amnesty Law
According to Belta, a day earlier Lukashenko signed the amnesty law on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from Nazi occupation. At the same time, he did not rule out the release of some people arrested in connection with the events of 2020. After the presidential elections in the summer of 2020, in which the authorities again declared Lukashenko the winner, which the opposition and the West refused to recognize, a huge wave of protests arose in Belarus. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets, but the regime harshly suppressed the protests. About 35,000 people were detained by law enforcement and thousands of them were beaten by the police in their cells.
“Do not be surprised that seriously ill people will be released from prisons in the coming days,” Lukashenko said on Tuesday, adding that most of them would be prisoners with cancer. It is the first time since the massive protests of 2020 that he mentioned the release of political prisoners on humanitarian grounds, AP noted. According to her, in addition to Kastusjou, journalist Ksenija Luckinová, who has a brain tumor, is also seriously ill, and political prisoner Pavlo Kučinský was also diagnosed with cancer. Pavel Sapelka from Vyasna said that as of the beginning of May, at least 254 Belarusian political prisoners had health problems, with 91 of them in serious condition.
Among the more than 1,400 people Vyasna refers to as political prisoners are, for example, its founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bjaljacki or opposition leader Maryja Kalesnikavová. Cichanouská has previously pointed out that many Belarusian political prisoners cannot communicate with the outside world and it is not known whether they are alive or dead. According to Vyasna, six people imprisoned for political reasons have died behind bars in the last few years.