“We were told that he is there. It was yesterday when he was admittedly transferred, but they did not inform what time it happened at. They also did not go into details talking about his health condition,” Alena Kavalenka, the wife of the opposition activist, said. She wonders if her husband continues hunger-striking.
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“Yesterday [on May, 18 – Belsat] I tried to obtain a permit to visit him. I was turned down; they said that some necessary papers had not been received yet. But in conformity with the law I have the right to visit him. I’ve come today and they say that he is not here,” Alena Kavalenka said. The wife of the political prisoner does not know which penal colony Siarhei Kavalenka was moved to.
When Alena Kavalenka was approaching the detention facility four prisoner vehicles were driving out. “Siarhei might have been transferred in one of them. On Monday our defence lawyer will try and discover where Siarhei was moved to,” the woman said.
It is notable that Alena Kavalenka is to stand trial on May 30, 2012. She is accused of disorderly conduct. On May 18, 2012 when her husband’s cassational appeal was being considered she wrote “Free Siarhei Kavalenka!” on the pavement in front of the regional court building. Alena Kavalenka and her friends were detained and taken to the court but the hearing was postponed because the judge took a decision to question the policemen who had arrested the accused.
In May 2010 Siarhei Kavalenka received three-year suspended sentence for hanging out a white-red-white flag on the 40-meter New Year Tree in the center of Vitsebsk. This action was defined as «major violation of public order».On December 19, 2011 Kavalenka was arrested in connection with criminal proceedings under Art. 415 of the Criminal Code (evasion of liberty restraint service). On December 20, 2012 Siarhei Kavalenka started hunger-striking in protest.
On February 24, 2012 the Pershamayski district court in Vitsebsk chaired by judge Alena Zhuk sentenced the oppositionist to two years and one month in a low security correctional institution on a charge of violating probation rules.
The court started the consideration of case upon Kavalenka’s cassational appeal on April 10, 2012. Then a panel of Vitsebsk regional court ordered that Siarhei Kavalenka should be subjected to comprehensive mental examination in hospital environment and the oppositionist was moved to Navinki psychiatric hospital in Minsk district.
On April 13, 2012 Siarhei Kavalenka quit hunger-striking. According to his wife, the political prisoner made this step not to be found insane. But Kavalenka resumed it on May 8, 2012: he reiterated his protest against the unrighteous sentence and demands the release of all the political prisoners as well as using the national white-red-white flag and Pahonya emblem.
On May 16, 2012 the defence lawyer visited the political prisoner. According to his wife, Siarhei Kavalenka started losing weight again: at the moment he weighs about 60 kg. “Besides, he has taken notice of signs of diabetes, which might have been caused by forced glucose dosing during his hunger strike,” Alena Kavalenka said.
On May 18, 2012 the Vitsebsk regional court rejected Siarhei Kavalenka’s cassational appeal against the verdict delivered to him by the Pershamayski district court in Vitsebsk.
Belsat
