Artist Aleś Puškin dies in prison – wife

July 11, BPN. Aleś Puškin, a prominent dissident artist, died last night at the age of 57 at an intense care unit in Belarus “under unclear circumstances,” his wife Janina Dziemuch has said on Facebook.

He was serving a five-year sentence in a maximum security penal colony, convicted of insulting state symbols and inciting hatred, after investigators seized his painting of Jaŭhien Žychar, a commander of an anti-Soviet resistance group in the 1940-50s, and nationally-styled items. The charges were politically motivated, according to human rights activists.

A national revival movement veteran, Puškin was active with the Belarusian Popular Front in the 1980s.

In 1999, he was given a two-year suspended sentence for his performance outside the presidential office in Minsk, where he used a pitchfork to pin Alaksandar Łukašenka’s photo to a pile of manure.

Police arrested him in March 2021 after his depiction of the anti-Soviet underground fighter had infuriated prosecutors. Last year, a local judge sent him to a prison where he was held until his death.

The administration of Colony No. 22 in Ivacevičy, Brest region, placed him in the colony’s internal prison also known as PKT for five months, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported in August 2022.

Inmates are normally sent to PKT units for malicious violation of prison regulations. They labor separately from other convicts, and receive reduced food rations.