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MINSK, Belarus (AP) — A court in Belarus has added two years and stiffer conditions to the prison sentence of an opposition activist known for a chest tattoo calling for the ouster of the country's authoritarian president.
Yuri Rubtsov already was serving a 1 ½-year sentence in a minimum-security labor colony for participating in an April protest. But he refused assigned work in that colony on the grounds of low wages, and a court on Thursday sentenced him to two years in a medium-security prison for that offense.
The 54-year-old Rubtsov had gained notoriety by showing up at protests with a T-shirt reading "Lukashenko go away," referring to President Alexander Lukashenko, the ex-Soviet republic's hard-line leader since 1994.
He later had the words tattooed on his chest.
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