Tatsyana Klimava: “Lukashenka can release political prisoners”

Today a law “On Amnesty” has come into force. As a result about 3,500 convicted were released, including 1,682 persons from detention facilities.

However, the former candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Kazulin, a politician Andrei Klimau, leaders of the “Young Front” Zmitser Dashkevich and Artur Finkevich, businessmen Mikalay Autukhovich and Yury Lyavonau are unlikely to be released.

As said by Andrei Klimau’s wife Tatsyana Leanovich, she hadn’t been counting on this amnesty. “Firstly, the article under which Andrei had been convicted, had been withdrawn from the amnesty, and secondly, a political will of the leadership of the state is needed for amnestying political prisoners. As before, they refuse to admit that there people in Belarus who are imprisoned on political grounds,” the Charter’97 press-center has been informed by Tastyana Leanovich.

As said by Tastyana Leanovich, authorities are in no hurry to show such a will. “How could we count on an amnesty, when the case of Artur Finkevich has been taken to the court, while the article he has been charged with envisages either a restraint of liberty or a discharge, however the second variant looks fantastic. It’s a better variant for the regime to close the case in a judicial proceeding,” Tastyana Leanovich believes.

In this connection Tatsyana Leanovich believes that her husband, like other political prisoners, could be released only by a special decree of Lukashenka. She fully supports the opinion of a well-known human rights activist Harry Pahanyajla in this issue. “Lukashenka has sent them to prison, that is why only Lukashenka could release them, not a new law on amnesty,” Tatsyana Leanovich said.

Statements of Internal Affairs Minister Uladzimir Navumau that another amnesty is possible next year seem baseless to Tatsyana Leanovich. “Navumau spoke about a possibility to discuss the question of the next amnesty preparation, that is why such a law couldn’t be expected earlier than in 2 -2.5 years. These statements have been done to quiet down public opinion. The matter is that the current law on amnesty caused a great disappointment in the society.

The law had been far more democratic before being edited in the Administration of the president. In particular, many prisoners including Andrei were counting on cutting of an imprisonment term for a year, and that clause, like a number of articles previously making amnesty possible, were deleted by lawyers of the Administration,” Tatsyana Leanovich told to the Charter’97 press-center.