On March 6, 2013 Radoslaw Sikorski met with ex-presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau and his wife, journalist Iryna Khalip in Warsaw.
During the meeting Andrey Sannikau called on the West to be involved in the fight for the release of the political prisoners in Belarus, the Polish MFA press office reports. Radoslaw Sikorski assured his guests that Poland would push for the democratization of Belarus and expressed confidence that the recently established European Foundation for Democracy would be an efficient tool for supporting Belarus’ civil society, the ministry said.
In May 2011 Andrey Sannikau, a former deputy Foreign Minister, was sentenced to five years of imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony for mass riot organisation after the 2010 presidential elections. Having filed a petition for pardon to Lukashenka in November, 2011 he was released only on April 14, 2012. In the summer of 2012, Mr Sannikau was granted political asylum in the UK.
His wife, independent journalist Iryna Khalip, was sentenced to two years of imprisonment with suspended execution of the sentence. She has recently been allowed by probation authorities to travel abroad to meet with her husband.
Belsat, following BelaPAN
