Jailed Belarussian opposition leader Alexander Kozulin, considered in the West to be the ex-Soviet state's most prominent political prisoner, was released on Saturday and is on his way home, his daughter said. Western countries have long made his release a condition for improving ties with Belarus, which they accuse of crushing freedom of speech.
"This morning he phoned me from the prison and said he had been released," Olga Kozulina told Reuters by telephone. Kozulina said she believed her father, jailed for 5 1/2 years for helping stage protests against President Alexander Lukashenko's re-election in 2006, had been freed for good and not merely for the funeral of his father-in-law.
As the funeral was now taking place, she said, Kozulin would make no statements before Monday. Lukashenko remains barred from entering the United States and European Union. For more than a year he has sought improved ties with the West, particularly the 27-nation EU, after quarrelling with traditional ally Russia over energy prices.
Veteran opposition figure Anatoly Lebedko said Kozulin's release showed the Belarussian president had bowed to demands in the West for democratic change. "This shows Lukashenko was obliged to make concessions to the West. I see this as an important victory for democratic society," Lebedko told Reuters.
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