Belarusian jailed over Lukashenko, Putin’s caricatures dies in prison

On May 7, 61-year-old blogger and political prisoner from Pinsk, a well-known public and political figure in Belarusian Polesie, Nikolai Klimovich, died in Vitebsk’s colony 

This was reported by the Viasna human rights group.

Representatives of Lukashenko's regime did not approve the fact that he liked a caricature of Alexander Lukashenko and posted an image of Vladimir Putin in a Nazi uniform, Nasha Niva reported. 

On February 28, Klimovich was sentenced, and on April 21, he was transferred to a colony.

“This sentence was passed by Judge Andrey Bychila of the Pinsk district and the city of Pinsk on the submission of Prosecutor Ilya Guzarevich, despite the fact that Nikolai Klimovich had a group II heart disability. The man was detained in the courtroom, as he was at large before the verdict was passed,” the human rights activists note.

For reference

Nikolai Klimovich became involved in the social and political life of Belarus at a young age. In the 1990s, he joined the Belarusian People's Front party, and in 2001 he became a member of the initiative group for the creation of the republican public association Legal Protection of Citizens under the leadership of Oleg Volchek, according to the Belarus of the Brain Telegram channel.

Starting in 2009, he wrote a blog in the Live Journal, where he talked about his life in Pinsk.

In 2020, he was taken to a psychiatric clinic for his active civic position, where he was deliberately kept until after the presidential election.

Nikolai Klimovich actively opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The opposition People's Community, which calls the deceased its activist, promises to “appeal to international organizations to investigate the death of Nikolai Klimovich.”

The leader of the People's Community, Mikola Statkevich, is also imprisoned.