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Sannikaw demands guarantees of his safety in Babruysk prison

 

Andrey Sannikaw has demanded guarantees of his safety in Correctional Institution No. 2 in Babruysk, the wife of the presidential candidate, journalist Iryna Khalip, told BelaPAN on Thursday with reference to the politician’s lawyer.

The lawyer met in the latter half of Wednesday with Mr. Sannikaw who is held in a detention center in Mahilyow following his removal from a prison in Navapolatsk, Vitsyebsk region, last week for transfer to the institution in the Mahilyow region.

Ms. Khalip said that Mr. Sannikaw might be moved to the Babruysk prison later on Thursday.

She said that her husband did not want to be placed there without authorities` guarantees of his safety after receiving death threats at a transfer center in Vitsyebsk.

While talking to reporters in Minsk on Wednesday, Ms. Khalip said that authorities might carry out “serious provocations” against her husband.

An inmate in the Vitsyebsk transfer center told Mr. Sannikaw that he had been warned by “two officers in plain clothes” that he should be careful as the politician might be killed or beaten up either in the detention center or on his way to the correctional institution in the Mahilyow region, said Ms. Khalip.

According to the woman, Mr. Sannikaw initially shared the cell in the facility with two inmates convicted of serious crimes who themselves expressed surprise that the politician had been placed together with them in one cell.

They also reportedly warned Mr. Sannikaw that his safety was under threat.

She said that Mr. Sannikaw had been placed in solitary confinement at the request of his lawyer afterward. “By doing so, the administration of the facility confirmed that Mr. Sannikaw is under threat,” she noted. // BelaPAN