Jailed Belarusian opposition activist allowed to see her father
- 13 November, 09:06
Jailed Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava was permitted to meet her father on Tuesday. A picture of the Belarusian dissident with her father appeared in Telegram messaging app. Another picture showed Kalesnikava smiling. Both pictures seems to have been taken in the prison cell and were shared in Telegram by another formerly jailed opposition figure, Roman Protasevich.
Franak Viacorka, an aide to exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Belarusian regime wanted to show that Maria Kalesnikava was alive. "I think that's the result of the international campaign for Maria and international pressure and solidarity of course,” Viacorka said. However, this doesn’t mean that Belarus authorities would release Kalesnikava or other political prisoners any time soon, she stressed.
Belarus's main opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she was deeply “relieved” to see pictures of Kaleshnikova after she was "kept incommunicado for more than 600 days".
Tsikhanouskaya run in the 2020 presidential election, that was followed by mass anti-government protests against Alexander Lukashenko's securing sixth term as the president. The mass protests caused government’s persecution of opposition figures.
Kalesnikava was among supporters of Tsikhanouskaya and was detained during mass street protests. She was jailed for 11 years on charges including conspiracy to seize power. Kalesnikava's sister, Tatsiana Khomich, told Reuters in September that Kalesnikava was ill while being held incommunicado and had lost a lot of weight.
