POLITICAL PRISONER

Belarusian Dissident Artist Ales Pushkin Mysteriously Dies in Prison

Ales Pushkin has long drawn the ire of the country’s authoritarian president Aleksandr Lukashenko.

A Belarusian dissident artist who has long drawn the ire of authoritarian president Aleksandr Lukashenko died in prison under mysterious circumstances, it was reported Tuesday. Ales Pushkin, 57, was serving a five-year sentence after being arrested in 2021 over one of his paintings. The government called his offense “rehabilitation and justification of Nazism.” His cause of death is still unconfirmed—despite his wife announcing via Facebook that it actually took place weeks ago—but an opposition Belarusian news site cited an anonymous source that said Pushkin had an untreated perforated ulcer. Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya seems to suspect foul play, saying via Twitter that Pushkin “died as a political prisoner of the regime & the responsibility lies with his jailer, Lukashenko & his cronies.”