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US Consular Official Demands Release of Her Husband from Belarusian Jail

Charles Maynes

   MOSCOW - A U.S. consular official says her Belarusian-American
   husband's life is in "immediate danger" after security forces in
   Belarus arrested him in July.

   Vitali Shkliarov, 44, a political analyst who holds a U.S. diplomatic
   passport, was detained while visiting his elderly parents in his
   hometown of Gomel ahead of Belarus's highly charged August 9
   presidential elections, recounts his wife, Heather Shkliarov, in a
   letter released to news media.

   "Vitali traveled to Belarus on July 9, along with our 8-year-old son,
   simply to visit his mother, who is suffering from advanced cancer, and
   to celebrate his birthday on July 11 with his family and friends,"
   writes Shkliarov, who says she stayed behind in the United States to
   prepare the family's move to Ukraine as part of a new assignment to the
   U.S. embassy in Kyiv.

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