Minsk, May 20 (RFE/RL) -- Belarussian opposition activist Vyachaslau Siuchyk was released Friday from a Minsk prison hospital. Siuchyk was freed on the 20th day of a hunger strike.
Siuchyk was accused by the government of organizing a mass demonstration in Minsk on April 26, the 10th anniversary of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Siuchyk and fellow activist Yuri Khadyka were taken into custody by Belarussian police after the demonstration.
Sergei Khripach, an Interior Ministry spokesman in Belarus, said Thursday that Siuchyk had been hospitalized after he lost consciousness. Gennady Karpenko, deputy head of parliament, told deputies that Siuchyk had suffered kidney failure.
Khadyka, another activist from the Belarussian popular front, remains in prison and is continuing his hunger strike.