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Former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich to stand trial in Shklow prison on January 12

Former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich is to stand trial in an open-type correctional institution in Shklow, Mahilyow region, on January 12 on a charge of violating prison rules, which may land him in a cell-type institution.

Mr. Statkevich's wife, Maryna Adamovich, was notified of the trial by an official letter.

"On December 16, a special commission held a meeting to examine allegations against Mikalay and declared him a 'persistent violator of prison rules,'" Ms. Adamovich said. "He may now have to serve his prison term in a cell. This is a radical measure, but prison officials do not hesitate to apply it to those they see as a threat."

The woman said was that her husband would probably be moved to Prison No. 4 in Mahilyow, and that she would then be allowed to have only one brief meeting with him in a year.

Nevertheless, asking Alyaksandr Lukashenka for a pardon is out of the question for Mikalay, Ms. Adamovich stressed. "I don't even want to discuss such things," she said. "This is impossible because this can never happen."

The charge was brought against Mr. Statkevich because of his missing number tag and failure to mention handkerchiefs among his personal items.

According to Ms. Adamovich, authorities are ready to use any pretext to take revenge on her husband for a letter recently smuggled out of his prison.

In May 2011, a district judge in Minsk sentenced Mikalay Statkevich, now 55, to six years in a medium-security prison, finding him guilty of organizing "mass disorder" in connection with the December 19, 2010 post-election protest. //BelaPAN