Ales Pushkin, a Belarusian artist and a critic of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, has died in prison under unexplained circumstances, his wife and Belarusian human rights organization Viasna said on Tuesday.
The 57-year-old died in an intensive care unit "under unclear circumstances," the group said.
Pushkin had been held in a prison in the western city of Grodno.
For two decades, Pushkin had denounced the violence of the Lukashenko government with sensational art campaigns.
In 1999, according to the independent internet portal Mediazona, he dumped a cart full of manure in front of Lukashenko's official residence for which he received a two-year suspended sentence.
Pushkin was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to five years in prison in 2022. The charges in the closed-door trial were desecration of the state and incitement to hatred.
According to Viasna, Pushkin caused an uproar when the verdict was announced by taking off his clothes and showing cuts in the shape of a cross on his stomach. He had inflicted these on himself while in pre-trial detention.
Human rights activists said Pushkin served several months in camp detention after the verdict and was transferred to solitary confinement before being transferred to the Grodno prison at the end of 2022.
