English

Kavalenka, Syramolataw formally apply for presidential pardon

 

Syarhey Kavalenka and Pavel Syramolataw, who are widely viewed as political prisoners, have formally applied to Alyaksandr Lukashenka for a presidential pardon.

A month ago, the presidential clemency board received two pardon applications from prisoners, Mr. Lukashenka told reporters in Minsk on Sunday, adding that he did not know who the applicants were.
The presidential press office told BelaPAN that the pardon appeals had come from Messrs. Kavalenka and Syramolataw.

Syarhey Kavalenka, a member of the Conservative Christian Party, was sentenced to a suspended three-year prison sentence in 2010 for putting a white-red-white flag on top of Vitsyebsk's tallest Christmas tree in early January.

On December 19, 2011, Mr. Kavalenka, currently 37, was arrested at home on a charge of violating probation rules and placed in the Vitsyebsk detention center. He went on a hunger strike following his arrest, which lasted about two months with some breaks, and reportedly lost nearly 40 kilograms of weight.

On February 24, he was sentenced to two years and one month in prison.

On May 18, the Vitsyebsk Regional Court rejected his appeal against the sentence.

At the end of June, Mr. Kavalenka applied to Alyaksandr Lukashenka for an early release but did not admit his guilt. Severe pressure was reportedly put on him to file a "proper" pardon application.

Pavel Syramalotaw, 21 years of age, and two other young men were sentenced to seven-year prison terms in May 2011 over an October 2010 Molotov cocktail attack on the KGB office in Babruysk. // BelaPAN