Mikalai Kazlou, the former head of the banned Belarusian opposition party United Civic Party, was released from prison on Monday after serving a 30-month sentence, as reported by human rights group Viasna. Kazlou was convicted under Article 342 of the Belarusian Criminal Code for organizing or participating in acts that violated public order. He was detained in July 2022 following a rally against alleged election fraud that drew an estimated 100,000 participants in August 2020.
The head of the Minsk Department of Belarus’s Investigative Department, Siarhei Pasko, alleged that Kazlou had used Belarusian citizens for his purposes, controlled the radical crowd, and instructed protestors to block roads and disrupt traffic during the mass protests of 2020. Similar charges have been levied against other former United Civic Party members, including Antanina Kavaliova and Aksana Aliakseyeva, who were sentenced to one and one and a half years in prison, respectively. Additionally, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the primary opponent of President Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 election, fled Belarus among escalating political repression.
Kazlou’s release is part of a broader initiative under the recently signed Law On Amnesty in Connection with the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belarus from Nazi Invaders, which saw 19 prisoners set free. This new amnesty law, however, specifically excludes individuals convicted of “extremist and terrorist activities”.
In March, the United Nations published a report on human rights violations in Belarus during and after the 2020 presidential election, highlighting widespread arbitrary detention. These events, which followed a fraudulent presidential election, led to mass protests and numerous politically motivated arrests. According to Viasna, Belarus currently holds 1,376 political prisoners under similar charges.
For further details, see the full article on the Jurist website.