BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/02/2008

Imprisoned Belarusian Politician Threatens Hunger Strike Unless Allowed To Attend Wife's Funeral

Alyaksandr Kazulin, an imprisoned former presidential candidate, has announced that he will go on a dry hunger strike if the authorities fail to allow him to attend the funeral of his wife Iryna, who died on February 23 after a long fight with breast cancer, Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported on February 24. "If I am not let out within the next two days, I will declare a dry hunger strike on February 26 and then my wife and I will be buried together in six or seven days," he said. Kazulin, who ran in the March 2006 presidential election, was arrested during antigovernment demonstrations that followed the polls, and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for organizing events that disturbed public order. Kazulin, along with several recently released persons -- youth activists Zmitser Dashkevich and Artur Finkevich, former legislator Andrey Klimau, and journalist Alyaksandr Zdzvizhkou -- is regarded by the West as having been persecuted for his political views and is probably the most significant figure to be jailed in recent years in Belarus. Kazulin's daughter, Volha, applied early on February 24 to the Prosecutor-General's Office to allow her father to attend the funeral of her mother. AM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2008/02/3-cee/cee-250208.asp

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