Mikalai Kazlou, former head of the banned Belarusian opposition United Civic Party, was released from prison on Monday, according to human rights group Viasna. Kazlou previously served 30 months in prison before his release.
Kazlou was sentenced to two and a half years in prison over organizing or participating in acts that violated public order under Article 342 of the Belarusian Criminal Code. He was detained on July 27, 2022 after allegedly challenging the results of an election in a rally with at least 100,000 individuals in attendance on August 23, 2020.
The head of the Minsk Department of Belarus’s Investigative Department Siarhei Pasko stated that:
In August 2020, [Kazlou] not only actively participated in the mass atrocities on the streets of Minsk, but also actively used the citizens of Belarus for the base purposes of his curators. [] Kazlou controlled the radical crowd, gave the protestors instructions, called for blocking the roads and obstructing the passage of vehicles[.]
Kazlou is not the only former United Civic Party member to be imprisoned. Former United Civic Party members Antanina Kavaliova and Aksana Aliakseyeva were previously sentenced to one and one and a half years in prison, respectively. In addition, incumbent Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s main opponent in the 2020 election Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya fled Belarus.
Belarus released 19 prisoners following the signing of the Law On Amnesty in Connection with the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belarus from Nazi Invaders. The new amnesty law is different from older similar laws because it does not grant amnesty for persons that are involved in “extremist and terrorist activities.”
Earlier in March, the UN released a report on the human rights situation in Belarus during and after the country’s presidential election in 2020. In the report, the mass arbitrary detention during the presidential election is highlighted. The fraudulent presidential election sparked mass protests in the country, with countless arbitrary arrests as a result. Viasna stated that there are 1,376 political prisoners in Belarus, most of whom were targeted due to politically motivated reasons.
