Is Kazulin’s conviction overturned?

The deputy chairman of the citizenship and migration department Alyaksei Byahun has stated that the conviction of the former political Alyaksandr Kazulin has been removed from official records.

To the question of a reporter of the European Radio For Belarus whether the amnesty act would remove Kazulin’s conviction from official records, Byahun answered in the positive and underlined that Alyaksandr Kazulin is not on the list of persons banned from leaving abroad.

As we have informed, on August 16 Alyaksandr Kazulin was pardoned by a decree of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Aleh Slepchanka, an acting spokesperson of the Internal Ministry of Belarus, said then that “pardon does not expunge the record of his conviction”.

The former candidate for presidency in Belarus Alyaksandr Kazulin was arrested for organising protest rallies against rigged election results on the Freedom Day, March 25, 2006. On July 13, 2006 Minsk court sentenced Alyaksandr Kazulin to 5.5 years of imprisonment.

Having the record of Kazulin’s conviction expunged means that he would be able to participate in the presidential election.