2015 Nobel Laureate Alexievich left Belarus for treatment
The 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature, Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievitch, here in 2013. AFP PHOTO / DANIEL ROLAND
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At 72, the Nobel Prize for Literature Svetlana Alexievich was one of the last Belarusian opposition figures still in the country and at large.
This Monday, one of her friends announced her departure for Germany.
She must receive medical attention there.
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The police had been monitoring and harassing Svetlana Alexievich for weeks.
The Nobel Prize obtained in 2015 was therefore unable to protect this 72-year-old writer - facing threats because of her commitment to a democratic transition.
At the end of August, when she is summoned by the police and refuses to go, Svetlana Alexievich declares to the press that "
the authorities are trying to scare us, but we are not guilty of anything, we just want to live in freedom.
"
A member of the Coordination Council formed to promote a peaceful transition, she was at the forefront of the revolt against the autocrat Alexander Lukashenko.
Of the seven members of this council, Svetlana Alexievich was the only one still at large and in Belarus - the other six being either arrested or forced into exile, such as Svelana Tikhanovskaya, the best-known face of the refugee protest movement in Lithuania.
However, Svetlana Alexievitch has made it known that she will not give up her political engagement and that she is leaving her country only for medical reasons.
The writer intends to return to Minsk in a month.
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