Ales Byalyatski phoned home for first time

Ales Byalyatski phoned home on the evening of April 27 and talked to his wife Natallya Pinchuk.

Natallya says she was happy to hear her husband all the more it was his first call from prison. Ales promised to write in a letter when he would be able to phone again. Natallya worries about Ales's health, Radio Svaboda reports.

“I heard he was speaking through his nose and asked about his health. He said he felt normal, he almost recovered from a cold and he was fine. He was in normal mood, the voice sounded vigorous, but as I understood it was because he had a long queue behind him. He said we needed to end the conversation. I tried to resent, but he said there was a long queue and everybody wanted to use their five minutes to phone,” the wife of the political prisoner said.

Ales confirmed he would appeal against a new claim of taxation office against him. The taxation office wants the human rights activist to pay 140 million rubles of fine for late paying fines and taxes. Byalyatski's relatives say the sum under the claim was indexed and paid in full.