27 October 2006
Kozulin is in "cheerful mood," wife says

The wife of Aleksandr Kozulin said that the former presidential candidate was in "a cheerful mood." "That's what the prison administration told me today," Irina Kozulin told BelaPAN on Thursday.

According to the woman, the opposition politician continued his hunger strike. He was to meet with one of his lawyers on October 26. "However, Igor Rynkevich fell ill and could not travel to the correctional institution. The other lawyer, Dmitry Goryachko, failed to put other matters aside in order to visit my husband," Mrs. Kozulin said.

The lawyers are expected to visit the politician on October 30.

Dr. Kozulin went on an open-ended hunger strike in the Vitba-3 correctional institution near Vitebsk on October 20, saying that he protested what he called the illegal reelection of Aleksandr Lukashenko for a third term this past March. The leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Hramada" also wants to use the hunger strike for drawing the attention of the international community to the situation in Belarus.

Ex-lawmaker Sergei Skrebets, an inmate at the same facility, joined the protest in token of solidarity with the former presidential bidder.