Opposition demands stronger sanctions on regime over Babaryka’s hospitalization

April 27, BPN. Amid reports of jailed democrat Viktar Babaryka’s hospitalization, the opposition’s cabinet called on the international community to “fully use the instrument of sanctions pressure on [Belarusian ruler Alaksandr] Łukašenka’s regime.”

The statement comes one day after Rabočy Ruch, a worker rights group, reported Babaryka’s hospitalization with signs of beating and a collapsed lung. His condition was reportedly serious but stable.

The politician’s team confirmed that he was in hospital, while a source told BPN that “a patient with the last name Babaryka, born in 1963,” was admitted to the Navapołack City Hospital in the Viciebsk region. Doctors reportedly confirmed a pneumothorax. Another source said the patient might have too much fluid in his lungs.

“We demand that lawyers and relatives be allowed to visit Viktar Babaryka, and that the general public be given an opportunity to witness that Viktar Babaryka’s condition is ‘satisfactory’ and he is provided with all required medical assistance,” the opposition’s cabinet has said in the statement released today.

Meanwhile, the Warsaw-based television channel, Belsat TV, has reported that “three uniformed officers of the corrective colony and several people in plain clothes” took Babaryka away from the hospital’s surgery department this morning.

The banker-turned-politician was arrested by security officers weeks before the August 2020 presidential election. The arrest prevented him from registering his candidacy for the race despite turning in 425,000 voter signatures, four times as many as required by law.

One year later, the Supreme Court sentenced Babaryka to 14 years in prison, finding him guilty of large-scale fraud and legalization of funds derived from criminal activity.