Will Andrei Klimau be released?

On June 3 two months will pass since the moment of detention of an opposition leader Andrei Klimau. Law-enforcing agencies are to define a measure of restraint for the politician: is he to be released or to be kept in custody. As we have informed, a few days ago Klimau was placed to a republican clinical hospital because of heart problems.

Andrei Klimau was arrested on April 3, 2007. He is charged with a crime under Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (appeals via the mass media to overthrow or forcibly change the constitutional regime, or to perpetrate “crimes against the state). The grounds for that were statements made in an Internet publication. According to the investigation, in this article the oppositionist called upon an overthrow of the regime. Andrei Klimau does not plead guilty and refuses to participate in investigatory actions.

This is the third arrest of Andrei Klimau over the period of his political activities which started in 1995. Earlier the politician, a MP of the Supreme Soviet of the 14th convocation, one of initiators of impeachment to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, spent more than 4 years in prison for economical crimes. Later he spent more than 15 months in a corrective labour facility for organizing a street protest rally.