28/4/2006
Belarus grants scientist permission to live abroad

Professor Yuri Bandazhevski of Belarus arrived in France on April 21.  He will live in Clermont Ferrand for a year where he will continue his  research at the Université de Médecine.

Professor Bandazhevski, former rector of the Gomel Medical Institute, was  arrested in 1999 and sentenced in 2001 to eight years imprisonment.  A  specialist in illnesses linked to radioactivity, Mr. Bandazhevski worked  on the health and epidemiological consequences of the Chernobyl  catastrophe which severely affected Belarus.  He was granted an early  release by the authorities on August 5, 2005.

The decision by the authorities to remove the last obstacles to  Professor Bandazhevski going abroad, at a time when all of Europe is commemorating the Chernobyl disaster, is a positive gesture of conciliation from the authorities to civil society.