US insists on release of all political prisoners in Belarus

• 20.02.2008, 13:07

“The United States insists on release of all political prisoners in Belarus and welcomes release of Andrei Klimau as one more positive step on the way to this aim,” the US embassy commented on release of opposition politician Andrei Klimau to BelaPAN.

We remind, Andrei Klimau was released from the Mazyr correctional colony №20, where he was serving his term on accusation of “public calls to seize the state power or overthrow constitutional order via media.” He was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment in maximum security colony for publishing articles on the Internet.

The US embassy also considers Alyaksandr Kazulin, former presidential candidate and leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada), and journalist Alyaksandr Zdzvihzkou to be political prisoners. Alyaksandr Zdzvihzkou was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment for reprinting caricatures of Prophet Mohammed, first published in the Danish newspaper.