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Lukashenko's opponent in the intensive care unit - Baerbock demands release

2022-11-30T16:04:58.278Z


Lukashenko's opponent in the intensive care unit - Baerbock demands release Created: 11/30/2022, 4:50 p.m By: Florian Naumann Concern for Maria Kolesnikova: The Lukashenko critic is in Belarus in the intensive care unit, the background is unclear. Your lawyer has been denied a visit. Minsk/Berlin – The Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova is apparently in serious health difficulties.


Lukashenko's opponent in the intensive care unit - Baerbock demands release

Created: 11/30/2022, 4:50 p.m

By: Florian Naumann

Concern for Maria Kolesnikova: The Lukashenko critic is in Belarus in the intensive care unit, the background is unclear.

Your lawyer has been denied a visit.

Minsk/Berlin – The Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova is apparently in serious health difficulties.

Alexander Lukashenko's opponent, who was sentenced to eleven years in prison in 2021, is in intensive care, Kolesnikova's spokesman Gleb Germanchuk told CNN.

Kolesnikova is in stable but "difficult condition, with some improvement," he said.

The first reports of Kolesnikova's hospitalization appeared on the news agency tickers on Tuesday evening (November 29).

However, there are still many unanswered questions about the background.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) called for Kolesnikova's immediate release.

Along with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Kolesnikova was one of the leaders of the mass protests against Lukashenko in the summer of 2020.

Belarus: Maria Kolesnikova in intensive care - Baerbock worried

"The reports on Maria Kolesnikova's state of health affect me very much," Baerbock said in a tweet on Wednesday.

“The regime in Belarus must guarantee their health and release them immediately.

Your commitment to democracy is not a crime.”

First, the press service of opposition leader Viktor Babaryko, who was also arrested, reported that Kolesnikova was being treated in the intensive care unit of a hospital in the city of Gomel in south-eastern Belarus.

The Lukashenko critic had previously been brought to surgery.

This was apparently preceded by an internal sentence for Kolesnikova.

The 40-year-old was transferred to a "punitive cell" for not showing up at her prison "workplace" as required, Germantschuk told

CNN

.

It was initially unclear whether there was a connection with the hospital stay.

However, further information from Kolesnikova's environment fueled concerns: Her lawyer Vladimir Pylchenko was not able to visit Kolesnikova in the hospital, it was said.

In principle, relatives have no visitation rights.

Lukashenko's opponent Kolesnikova: comrade-in-arms complains of "bad news"

In September 2021, Kolesnikova was sentenced to eleven years in prison.

Unlike other leading members of the opposition, she did not decide to flee into exile - although, according to confidants, the Belarusian secret service had tried to force her to leave the country.

In criminal proceedings, she was accused, among other things, of “conspiracy to seize power”.

Babaryko's press service reported last week that Kolesnikova had been held in solitary confinement for her alleged "rude behavior."

Comrade-in-arms Tichanovskaya wrote on Tuesday in the Telegram online service about “bad news”.

"Our dear Masha, we all hope that you will feel better soon," she wrote, using the pet form of the name Maria.

Maria Kolesnikova received several awards for her political commitment.

A few weeks after her conviction at the end of September 2021, for example, she received the Vaclav Havel Prize from the Council of Europe.

Together with Tichanowskaja and Zepkalo, she was awarded the European Charlemagne Prize in Aachen in absentia the following year.

The news of her hospitalization came just days after the sudden death of Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makej.

(

fn with material from dpa

)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-11-30

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