Andrei Klimau: ‘This time my health was undermined once and for all’

07.04.2008. Tags: political prisoners, criminal persecution, Klimau.
Source: Narodnaya volia.

Soon there will turn two months since the release of the politician Andrei Klimau on parole. In his interview to the Narodnaya Volia Andrei Klimau said that at present he was abroad.

- I am on a course of medical treatment in one of foreign clinics, - stated the politician.

- How are you?

- Not good. I can tell you that everything turned out much worse than I expected. It’s not a telephone talk. Most probably, there is a serious medical examination ahead. Prison is not a health resort and this time my health was undermined by it once and for all.’

- When do you return to Belarus?

- As soon as I feel a bit better.

Reference:

Andrei Klimau, well-known oppositional politician, was granted parole and released from Mozyr prison 15 February. He was arrested 3 April 2007 for publication of publicist articles on the web. A criminal case was brought against him under article 361, part 3, ‘Calls to overturn or forced change of the political systems, distributed with the aid of mass media’.

In the pre-trial prison Klimau suffered a heart attack. 1 August he was sentenced to 2 years in high security prison at closed trial. Earlier Klimau, an active opponent to the present ruler Lukashenka, spent four years in jail on charges in economical crimes and was also sentenced to 15 months of personal restraint for organization of street protest actions. He was declared a prisoner of conscience by the international human rights organization Amnesty International.