Belarusian Man Freed After Imprisonment for Wearing Shirt Criticizing President
Spent five days in jail
An opposition protester arrested in Belarus for wearing a T-shirt criticizing authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko was freed on Friday after spending five days in jail.
Leonid Smovzh, a 53-year-old railroad engineer, told The Associated Press that for the first two days he was held in a cell with no heat or light, and he was given no food.
He was arrested after a protest on Sunday for wearing a T-shirt on which he had written "For Belarus without Lukashenko." On the back it said "For Belarus without dictatorship."
"Why did I write this? So that I won't be ashamed to look my grandchildren in the eye when they ask, 'What did you do for us?' " Smovzh said.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?