Maria Kolesnikova, one of the Belarusian opposition figures imprisoned after the 2020 post-election protests, is in intensive care after undergoing surgery, according to Viktor Babariko, another detractor of Alexander Lukashenko’s government who is also in prison.
«Urgent! Maria Kolesnikova is in the ICU of the Gomel Clinical Hospital. The cause is unknown,» is written on Babariko’s Twitter account, from which it has been denounced that the defense of the opponent has not been allowed «for the third time» and «without any clear reason» to communicate with her.
«Masha (Maria) was taken to the hospital with a surgical pathology and operated on November 28. She is now stable», although «serious», although showing some «improvement». She is expected to be transferred to the ward from the intensive care unit on Wednesday, he said.
Babariko has denounced that the penitentiary center where Kolesnikova is serving an eleven-year sentence for illegally trying to seize power and heading an extremist organization during the protests «did not say anything about the hospitalization» and that the authorities ignored her lawyer’s warnings about her state of health.
Kolesnikova, whom Belarusian authorities unsuccessfully tried to remove from the country, led Babariko’s presidential campaign when he tried to take on Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election. In September of that year she was arrested for her role in the strong protests against the election result.
