Belarusian opposition activist granted amnesty :: Charter'97 :: News

Minsk`s Frunzenski district penal commission ruled on Wednesday [11 February] that [opposition activist] Aksana Novikava, who received a two-year suspended prison sentence and two year`s probation last April for distributing anti-Lukashenka leaflets [Alyaksandr Lukashenka is the president of Belarus], is eligible for the amnesty declared recently by the government. On 17 January, Ms Novikava was scheduled to stand trial for alleged failure to comply with probation rules, which could result in her being sent to jail, but a district judge postponed the hearing pending a decision by the penal commission.

"It is nice to feel a free person without the depressive thought of possible imprisonment," the opposition activist said in an interview with Belapan. "Now it will be much easier for me to continue fighting against the ruling regime, without the fear of impending imprisonment, although I was ready for that kind of scenario when I went out to the streets to hand out anti-presidential leaflets to passers-by," she said.

Ms Novikava, who is unemployed and has a daughter aged two years and nine months, said that she would entrust her little girl to the care of her relatives rather than an orphanage if imprisoned. The woman was fined 3.5m roubles (1,620 dollars) on 29 January for staging an unauthorized demonstration in front of the Supreme Court on 11 December 2003.

Three fines totalling thousands of dollars had been imposed on her earlier for similar offences.