31 October 2007
Opposition politicians petition Lukashenka for Kazulin release
A group of opposition politicians has sent a petition to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, asking him to release former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin.
They urged him to “show civil courage and honesty, and use his power for the good – the immediate release of Kazulin from prison.”
The petition carries signatures of politicians Anatol Lyabedzka, Viktar Ivashkevich, Yury Khadyka, Syarhey Kalyakin, Pavel Sevyarynets and Vyachaslaw Siwchyk, as well as of small business activist Alyaksandr Makayew and independent unionist Alyaksandr Bukhvostaw.
“The people were forced to appeal to the top-ranking addressee as without his personal interference, high judicial institutions cannot review the ruling in Alyaksandr Kazulin’s case for well-known reasons,” Ihar Rynkevich, a close associate of the imprisoned politician, told BelaPAN.
Mr. Rynkevich said that the authorities had legal tools of reviewing the judgment in the “politically motivated” case, pointing to an appeal that was submitted by the defense team to Prosecutor General Pyotr Miklashevich against Dr. Kazulin’s sentence earlier .
A daughter of Dr. Kazulin, Volha, sent a separate letter of appeal to Mr. Lukashenka.
Earlier this month, Volha Kazulin and Mr. Rynkevich complained to the United Nations Human Rights Committee about Dr. Kazulin’s sentence.
Alyaksandr Kazulin, 51, rector of Belarusian State University between 1996 and 2003 who was a candidate in Belarus' 2006 presidential election, was arrested during a police crackdown on a peaceful post-election opposition march on March 25, 2006. He was found guilty of hooliganism and the organization of group actions disturbing the public peace.
He has been held in the Vitsba 3 correctional facility near Vitsyebsk since September 21, 2006.
In March, Dr. Kazulin was reelected in absentia as chairman of the BSDP.
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