Belarusian activist Vitold Ashurok died in prison where he was serving his sentence after participating in protests against President Alexander Lukashenko.
According to the Nasha Niva newspaper, fifty-year-old Ashurok died of a heart attack in a prison colony in eastern Belarus.
A close friend of the prisoner, Sergej Pantus, also confirmed to the Belarusian online portal that Ashurok had died.
According to him, the prisoner's wife was called from the prison and told that his heart had stopped, and that an investigation would be conducted.
Originally from the western region of Hrodna, Ashurok was a member of the opposition party Belarusian People's Front and coordinator of the civil movement "For Freedom".
In January, he was sentenced to five years in prison for "violation of public order" and "violence towards the police" in a closed-door trial.
Lukashenko, in power since 1994, faced a large protest movement that rejected his re-election to a sixth term in the August 2020 election, saying the election was rigged.
During the summer and autumn of last year, that movement gathered tens of thousands of people at protests in Minsk and other cities.
However, the protests gradually died down due to mass arrests, police violence in which four people died, constant judicial harassment and heavy prison sentences against activists and journalists.
Opposition leader Svetlana Tihanovska, who is in exile in Lithuania, strongly condemned Ashurok's death.
"People are not only suffering, people are dying because of the regime in Belarus," she said in a post on Twitter.
European Union spokesman Peter Stano requested the immediate release of all political prisoners in Belarus via Twitter.
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