Ales Pushkin, Belarusian Artist And Political Prisoner, Dies In Prison

Belaru­sian artist and polit­i­cal pris­on­er Ales Pushkin has died in inten­sive care under unknown cir­cum­stances, his wife said on July 11. The 57-year-old had been sen­tenced to five years in prison for “mock­ing state sym­bols” and incit­ing “social enmi­ty or strife.” In his most famous work, Dung For The Pres­i­dent, he over­turned a wheel­bar­row of manure in front of the pres­i­den­tial build­ing in Min­sk in 1999.

Oppo­si­tion leader Svy­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya react­ed to Pushkin’s death, say­ing “peo­ple should not die in pris­ons» and prais­ing Pushkin’s work as “the embod­i­ment of the indomitable spir­it of the Belaru­sian peo­ple.”