Political prisoner Yan Salanovich released

Yan Salanovich, a former university student and employee of the KGB’s research and technology center, has been released after spending 87 days in detention. The authorities failed to provide explanation for the unexpected decision.

Salanovich was detained on November 1 and later sentenced to eight consecutive terms in prison, totaling 115 days. According to the prisoner’s lawyer, he confessed to attending 15 protests since early August. The counsel stresses that his client should have served no more than 37 days. A court in Minsk, however, ruled to punish Salanovich for each count of “illegal protesting.”

As a result, a coalition of Belarusian human rights organizations called Yan Salanovich a political prisoner and demanded his immediate release.

A few days before his unexpected release, Salanovich was expelled from the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics for “academic failure.”