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Belarusian Opposition Leader Gets New Police Warning


Uladzimer Nyaklyaeu (pictured) competed against incumbent Belarus President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in an election in December that sparked major protests.
Uladzimer Nyaklyaeu (pictured) competed against incumbent Belarus President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in an election in December that sparked major protests.
MINSK -- Former Belarusian presidential candidate Uladzimer Nyaklyaeu has been warned again by his parole officer after taking part in an opposition gathering, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

Nyaklyaeu told RFE/RL that he participated in a People's Assembly convened by the Belarusian opposition in Minsk on October 8. He said police visited his apartment three times that day to check whether he was at home.

Later on October 8, police delivered a subpoena summoning him to the parole inspection center in Minsk's Lenin district on October 10.

"They must have received specific instructions to keep me under constant surveillance to justify my possible return to jail for violating parole," Nyaklyaeu told RFE/RL.

On October 3, the parole inspection center had issued "a final warning" to Nyaklyaeu for visiting Poland on September 27-30.

Nyaklyaeu was attending the EU's Eastern Partnership summit and a human rights conference in Warsaw when he was summoned to the parole inspection officer. He reported to the parole officer in Minsk on October 3.

Earlier in September, a Minsk court barred Nyaklyaeu from leaving the city without written permission and from traveling outside Belarus for the duration of his two-year suspended sentence.

It also barred him from attending public gatherings and meetings, ordered him to present himself at a police station once a week, and told him to stay home between 8 pm and 6 am.

Nyaklyaeu was given a two-year suspended sentence on May 20 for his role in a protest in Minsk on December 19 by some 15,000 people following the announcement of incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's reelection.

Nyaklyaeu was severely beaten at the demonstration and hospitalized with a concussion and other injuries before being arrested. He was placed under house arrest until his trial started in May.

The opposition said the presidential vote was fraudulent, and international election monitors described it as flawed and failing to meet world standards.

Nyaklyaeu told RFE/RL last week he considers himself a free man and does not agree with the court verdict against him, as he said he did not commit a crime.

Read more in Belarusian here
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