Alyaksei Ramanau has cancer recurrence behind bars. He was jailed for ‘insulting president’
Alyaksei Ramanau, who has been in prison since December, suffers from cancer, he has second-degree disability. The prisoner’s condition has deteriorated, media outlet Flagshtok reports.
Ramanau, a Homiel-based activist of the Country for Living movement, is serving his term in the penal colony in the town of Hlybokaye. Lately there has been a recurrence of cancer, Alyaksei has bad pains. According to him, ‘it would be easier to contact with the other world than to see a doctor in the current environment’.
“The results of the biopsy have come. There is a problem, a chief medical officer said, but she gave no further details. They promised to send me to the republican prison hospital and to Baraulyany [oncology centre] in the near future,” he wrote in a letter.
Volunteer Alyaksei Ramanau, who contributed to holding pre-election pickets in support of Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, had been repeatedly detained in the course of the 2020 presidential campaign. In mid December, Choyniki district court passed a guilty verdict in his case; judge Andrey Kardash sentenced the disabled resident of Homieĺ to one year of imprisonment for ‘publicly insulting President’ at a rally on July 28. In court, Ramanau admitted to insulting a person, but not the head of state.
“I did not insult President. Because I do not consider Lukashenka to be President, he is illegitimate,” the convict stressed.
The Belarusian human rights community recognised Alyaksei Ramanau as a political prisoner.
