Andrey Sannikau states that while serving the sentence he was put under a lot of pressure. «It seemed to me that it was no jesting matter. Everything not excepting death might have happened to me,» the politician told journalists at the press conference on April 17, 2012.
The ex-presidential candidate also said that he had filed a petition for pardon intending to stop provocations. In the meantime, Andrey Sannikau refused to go into detail about the circumstances of appealing for pardon. «I filed a petition for pardon asking [Lukashenka – Belsat] for being humane. I performed this deed knowingly. I do not want to comment on this any more,» he said.
Andrey Sannikau informed journalists that he had asked for clemency twice, on November 20, 2011 and in December, 2011 after listening Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s press conference over the radio. Only after filing the second petition was the pressure relieved a bit, Sannikau said.
On April 14, 2012 Andrey Sannikau told journalists in Vitsebsk that he was released from Vitsba-3 penal colony under president Lukashenka’s decree of pardon.
At about 17.30 he was called to the colony administration and ordered to pack his belongings. The politician left open the possibility of being convoyed to another colony as it had repeatedly happened before. However, he was informed of being released according to the presidential pardon decree. He was delivered to Vitsebsk railway station where he managed to call his family from.
Ex-presidential candidate, former Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Belarus. Andrey Sannikau was found guilty of mass riot organization on December, 19, 2010. In May, 2011the court sentenced him to five-year imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony.
Belsat
