Uladzimir Niakliaeu: Don't feel much happier after release

People were executed without investigation and trial in the 1930s. Now they are released without trials.

Uladzimir Niakliaeu, the leader of Tell the Truth civil campaign and former presidential candidate, spoke to charter97.org about his release.

“I don't have any impressions of what didn't take place. People were executed without investigations and trial in the 1930s. Now they are released without trials. I don't feel much happier after the release. It was a sign for me, all opposition groups and all opponents of the regime. Pavel Vinahradau was detained in the morning on his way to the court. Activist Vital Vasilkou was just detained as he was leaving our office. It was a kind of a present on my release. By the way, I was released not today, but on July 23, but they didn't inform me about it,” the politician noted.

He stressed he was ready for everything before the trial.

“I talked to a famous lawyer, and he told me that if a person has a non-custodial sentence, his conviction is removed from his record just after the release. It's their fantasies that my criminal record will remain and I won't have the right to run in elections. No laws say about it. It is made to keep a person in fear and stress. I consider myself to be a free person. I will behave as a free person,” the ex-candidate for presidency said.

The poet added he would visit his home town in the nearest time.

“In a broad sense, I am not going to give up my current activities. I am not going to quit politics. I will continue to struggle against the things that we see every day. I will oppose the regime until it collapses,” Uladzimir Niakliaeu said.

Minsk's Leninski district court released Uladzimir Niakliaeu from punishment.

He was given a two-year suspended sentence on May 20, 2011.

Photo: BelaPAN