Enlarge image
The Belarusian opposition leader Maria Kalesnikava in the summer of 2020 in Minsk
Photo: Misha Friedman/Getty Images
The government critic Maria Kalesnikava, who has been imprisoned in Belarus, has been brought back to her prison after a hospital stay.
This was confirmed by a spokesman for opposition leader Wiktor Babariko, who was also arrested, citing her father.
He was therefore allowed to visit his daughter in the penal colony for around ten minutes.
He was able to make sure she was alive.
She has lost a lot of weight and has little strength.
Kalesnikava is one of the most well-known faces of the opposition in Belarus.
At the beginning of September 2020, she was kidnapped by the KGB secret service in Minsk.
When she was about to be deported to Ukraine, she tore up her passport just before crossing the border, thwarting plans to expel her from the country.
She has been in detention ever since, despite international protests.
In the middle of last week she was admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital in Gomel.
According to her father, she is said to have been treated for an ulcer.
She is now being cared for by a team of doctors in her prison's infirmary.
Kalesnikava asked to thank the doctors at the Gomel ambulance for saving her life.
Known opponent
Kalesnikava had worked for former banker Babariko, who originally wanted to run against ruler Alexander Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election, but was then imprisoned.
Together with Svetlana Tichanovskaya and Veronika Zepkalo, she became internationally known as an opponent of Lukashenko (read an interview with her here).
She joined the mass protests after what was widely regarded as a rigged election.
At times, more than 100,000 people took to the streets - despite all government resistance.
Security forces took massive action against the demonstrators.
In total, tens of thousands of people were arrested in Belarus during the protests and hundreds were injured.
Several people were killed.
After 26 years in power, Lukashenko had had himself declared president again with 80.1 percent alleged approval.
The democracy movement, on the other hand, sees Tichanovskaya as the winner of the election.
mrc/heb
