Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka has pardoned ex-presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich and other political prisoners.
“In keeping with the principle of humanism, President of Belarus Alyaksandr Lukashenka has decided to pardon and release Mikalai Dzyadok, Ihar Alinevich, Mikalai Statkevich, Yauhen Vaskovich, Artsyom Prakapenka, Yury Rubtsou,” state-run news agency BelTA reports with reference to the presidential press service.
The news came as a surprise for Mikalai Statkevich’s wife Maryna Adamovich. A journalist of Radio Liberty informed her of the unexpected decision.
It is to be recalled that Lukashenka promised to resolve the issue of political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich ‘in the near future’ at the recent meeting with independent journalists
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The sentence given to Mr Statkevich in 2011 was one of the toughest: six years of imprisonment in a maximum-security penal colony. The reason might be explained by the fact that in his election speech Mikalai Statkevich addressed to the current president demanding ‘to give back all that you have stolen’. The authorities kept trying to embitter Statkevich’s life even in prison putting him to a disciplinary cell or making him share a ward with an AIDS sufferer.
In January, 2012 Statkevich was transferred from Shklou penal colony No 17 to a closed prison, where conditions of confinement are much more severe. In January, 2015 the imprisoned politician was moved from Mahiliou prison No 4 back to Shklou penal colony No 17.
Soon after the transfer the administration of Shklou started accusing Statkevich of violating internal regulations and disobeying the colony administration. On April 9, the Shklou colony commission decided to transfer Statkevich to prison until the end of the sentence. In early May judge Barantsava upheld the penal colony’s motion to put Mikalai in prison once again.
