English

Sannikaw looks as if he had survived Stalin-era camps, wife says

Andrey Sannikaw looks as if he had survived a dozen Stalin-era camps, journalist Iryna Khalip, the wife of the imprisoned former presidential candidate, told reporters in Minsk on Wednesday.

Ms. Khalip had a brief meeting with Mr. Sannikaw in the Vitsba 3 correctional institution near Vitsyebsk on January 24. That was her first meeting with the opposition politician since early September.

At the meeting Mr. Sannikaw made clear that "something horrible" had happened to him, according to Ms. Khalip. "We were separated by glass and a prison officer was present in the room. However, I managed to write down a question whether they had threatened the family and pass the note to him. He nodded in reply," Ms. Khalip said.

Commenting on her situation, Ms. Khalip, who is under a suspended prison term, said that she was "under curfew." “Police visit me on evenings and I don’t have the right not to open the door. Anyone can come to me and demand, ‘Open the door. It is police.”

Ms. Khalip said that she was gravely concerned about the safety of her husband. “He told me at parting, 'My most fervent hope was to see you at least once,” Ms. Khalip said, speaking of the meeting. He told his mother the same, she said.

“Now I understand why Mikalay Statkevich has been transferred to that prison in Mahilyow, where he is now out of the sight of any potential witnesses, and why [Mr. Sannikaw’s campaign manager] ailing Dzmitry Bandarenka continues to be held in prison,” she said. “They just want to kill them. The authorities do not want them live. It is exactly why lawyers were denied meetings with Sannikaw and his letters never arrived after he wrote a pardon appeal. It can mean only one thing: the authorities did not want anybody to know about it.”