UN experts call on authorities in Belarus to pardon a cancer-stricken imprisoned opposition leader

By YURAS KARMANAU
Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Experts from the U.N. Human Rights Commission have appealed to Belarusian authorities Monday to pardon an opposition politician diagnosed with a severe form of cancer while in prison. The 66-year-old Ryhor Kastusiou is the leader of the Belarusian Popular Front party. He is serving a 10-year sentence on charges of “conspiracy to seize power.” The experts believe the poor conditions along with a failure by prison medical services to provide timely medical treatment “may even amount to torture.” Authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko unleashed an unrelenting crackdown on dissent in August 2020 after an election that the opposition and the West denounced as a sham. It gave him a sixth term in office.