Belarusian Opposition Blogger Klimovich Dies In Prison

Belaru­sian blog­ger Mikalay Klimovich, who was impris­oned for post­ing an online car­i­ca­ture of the country’s author­i­tar­i­an ruler, Alyak­san­dr Lukashen­ka, has died in a penal colony in the Viteb­sk region, the Min­sk-based Vyas­na (Spring) human rights cen­ter report­ed on May 7.

Klimovich had suf­fered a stroke and had heart surgery before being sen­tenced to one year in prison on Feb­ru­ary 28. Lukashenka’s regime insti­tut­ed a crack­down on dis­sent fol­low­ing a dis­put­ed pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in August 2020 that hand­ed him a sixth term in office. Oppo­si­tion lead­ers and West­ern gov­ern­ments have said the poll was rigged.

To read the orig­i­nal sto­ry by RFE/RL’s Belarus Ser­vice, click here.