DThe government critic Maria Kolesnikova, who has been arrested in Belarus, has been taken to a hospital in the city of Gomel and is in intensive care. This was announced by the telegram channel of opposition leader Viktor Babariko, who was also imprisoned and for whom Kolesnikova had worked.
According to the post, Kolesnikova has been in the intensive care unit of an emergency hospital in the southeastern city of Gomel since November 28. First she was admitted to the surgical ward. Before that, she was in solitary confinement in the penal colony, and her lawyer was denied access. A second post said Kolesnikova’s condition is now stable and that she is on the mend.
Kolesnikova is one of the most well-known faces of the opposition in Belarus. She was sentenced to eleven years in prison in September 2021. She was accused, among other things, of “conspiracy to seize power”. She led the mass protests against authoritarian President Alexandr Lukashenko in 2020 alongside opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya and activist Veronika Zepkalo. As one of the few leading Belarusian opposition figures, she decided against fleeing into exile.