Klimau had heart attack in prison

A political prisoner Andrei Klimau told in his letters that on May 21 he had a heart attack in Minsk remand prison No.1. The political prisoner was hospitalized to a Republican prison hospital in Kalvaryjskaya Street in Minsk. Besides, Andrei Klimau wrote that his term in prison was extended for three months.

“I was within an inch of death,” he noted. “By today’s morning I recovered a little. I can walk in the yard of the hospital, and what is most important, my sleep has become calm, without sudden choking or spasms in my breast”.

Charges against Klimau have been called ungrounded by him. “I hadn’t expected that my opponents could lower themselves to such a degree,” the political wrote.

As said by Klimau, over the years in prison his health had deteriorated significantly. “My heart is in a terrible condition now. I have to fight for a physical condition to survive each day of arrest”.

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.