MINSK: Belarus yesterday unexpectedly released from jail prominent rights activist Ales Belyatsky, who had been imprisoned since 2011 as part of President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on the beleaguered opposition.
Immediately upon arriving in the Belarussian capital Minsk from his high-security penal colony, the 51-year-old rights campaigner pledged to press ahead with his work that rattled the authorities for years.
“I will do what I was doing before,” said the shaven-headed activist dressed in a black T-shirt and black jacket.
“I’ve been released thanks to the solidarity and support of the entire global community,” he told several dozen supporters who greeted him at the railway station.
“That is why I’ve been released one year eight months early. I believe that other political prisoners should be released soon.”
Belyatsky, director of a human rights organisation called Vyasna (Spring), which helps victims of political repression under Lukashenko, has won several top European awards and has been repeatedly nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
In November 2011, Belyatsky was jailed for four-and-a-half years on tax evasion charges on the grounds that Vyasna used bank accounts in Poland and Lithuania to collect donations for helping political prisoners, a criminal activity under Belarussian laws.
Belyatsky said he had been released under amnesty, adding that the head of his colony had informed him about the move earlier yesterday.
AFP
