Jailed politician Statkievič isolated from other prisoners, deprived of parcels, visits for months

May 16, BPN. Jailed opposition politician Mikałaj Statkievič was isolated from other prisoners and deprived of visits and parcels for six months, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported citing his wife Maryna Adamovič.

The administration of Penal Colony No 13 in Hłybokaje, Viciebsk region, told Adamovič that her husband had been placed in a punishment cell five times in the last three months. The official did not specify how long he spent there.

Adamovič had not received any news from her husband for 95 days. She fears that he may held in solitary confinement again.

“Thirty-six penalties, 14 of them in solitary confinement,” she said. “He was once again punished with six months in a one-person cell. . . This means that he is in a dungeon 24/7 with a 30-minute daily walk in a similar dungeon if he is not in the punishment cell.”

The politician is not allowed to receive parcels and his wife has not received any letters from him, although prison authorities assured her of timely handling of correspondence.

On February 1, the UN Human Rights Committee confirmed that it had received Statkievič’s appeal against violations of his rights. About a month later, authorities would not allow the politician’s lawyer to see him citing a missing visit request.

On May 5, the Swiss-German human rights group Libereco presented a report on politically-motivated persecution in Belarus. It cites the March report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights describing some of the human rights violations in the country as possible crimes against humanity.

Police arrested Statkievič, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada), in Minsk in late May 2020. In December 2021, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly staging “mass riots.” A year later, the interior ministry added his name to the register of persons involved in extremist activities.

Belarusian human rights groups insist his persecution is politically motivated.