Political prisoner Kazulin released

On August 16, on the Day of Belarusian Solidarirty, the former candidate for presidency in Belarus, a political prisoner Alyakasndr Kazulin, was relsed. Alyaksandr Kazulin’s press-conference is to take place on Wednesday. The Charter’97 press-centre has been informed about that by the daughter of the politician Volha Kazulina.

The release of Alyaksandr Kazulin coincided with the death of his father-in-law. On August 17 the politician took part in the funeral ceremony. The politician hasn’t given an interview to journalists yet. Meanwhile, informational agencies with the reference to their sources informed that Alyaksandr Kazulin was pardoned by a special decree of Alyaksandar Lukashenka.

Right after the release the politician faced problems. On the next day his personal car was robbed, and the politician was detained with his daughters by traffic police when they were on their way to the funeral of Kazulin’s father-in-law. The politician was detained for an hour, and then he was released. The report was drawn up against the driver of the car where Kaulzin was travelling.

The former candidate for presidency in belarus Alyaksandr Kazulin was arrested for staging protest rallies against rigged election results on Freedom Day, March 25, 2006. On July 13, 2006 Minsk city court sentenced him to 5.5 years of arrest.

The EU and the US demanded to release A. Kazulin. The denial to release him and other political prisoners was one of the reasons for imposing economic sanctions against the Belarusian regime, and economic sanctions by the US.

The US welcomes Kazulin’s release. It is declared in the statement of State Department spokesman Sean McCormack spread on August 16.

“We are waiting from the authorities of Belarus other positive steps which would open possibilities for significant improvement of the relations between the US and Belarus,” McCormack said.