Regime critic Fiaduta admitted to prison hospital – reports

January 3, BPN. Jailed literary scholar Alaksandr Fiaduta was admitted to a prison hospital in Mahiliou with heart problems, Naša Niva reported on January 3.

Zerkalo.io quoted an unnamed source as saying that Fiaduta has been in hospital since December 21 for routine check-ups. He has been on and off a drip, and has also been treated for swollen legs.

On November 29, the Supreme Court upheld sentences against five defendants, including three men convicted of “conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means”: 10 years’ imprisonment for Fiaduta; 10 years for Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) Chair Ryhor Kastusioŭ; 11 years for Belarusian-born US lawyer Juryj Ziankovič; two-and-a-half years for accountant Volha Hałubovič and the same term for truck driver Dzianis Kraŭčuk.

Fiaduta, a veteran opposition thinker who was a member of Alaksandr Łukašenka’s administration in the 1990s, was arrested in April 2021. He has been on the list of “persons involved in extremist activities” since December 2022.