Belarus: Prisoner of Conscience freed
Posted: November 20, 2008
Belarusian opposition leader Alyaksandr Kazulin speaks at a news conference after his release from prison.
MAXIM MALINOVSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Alyaksandr Kazulin, prisoner of conscience and former opposition presidential candidate, was freed on August 16, 2008, after receiving a presidential pardon.
Kazulin was sentenced to five and a half years’ imprisonment in July 2006. He had been charged with “hooliganism” after taking part in a March 2006 protest march.
Government security forces used excessive force to break up the march. Kazulin was struck repeatedly by officers and hundreds were arrested.
Amnesty International believed that Alyaksandr Kazulin had been targeted for his political activities and that his trial was unfair.
Amnesty members around the world wrote letters to the Belarusian authorities demanding his release.
Amnesty remains concerned about the harassment of peaceful activists in Belarus, but sees Kazulin’s release as a sign that international pressure is increasingly effective against the Belarusian government.
Earlier this year, other Amnesty International prisoners of conscience, Zmitser Dashkevich and Alyaksandr Zdzvizhkou, and political prisoners, Artur Finkevch and Andrei Klimau, were also released early.