Ales Kirkevich: Prison uniform does not suit the presidential candidate
- 3.08.2011, 17:28
Ales Kirkevich saw Andrei Sannikov and Mikita Likhavid.
Zmitser Bandarenka is recovering after a surgery a week ago. Prisoners of the Babruisk penal colony are pressed to make them sign a petition for pardon. Letters are not sent from the colony in Ivatsevichy – a censor is on holidays. News about Belarusian political prisoners.
The wife of Zmitser Bandarenka tells Radio Svaboda that her husband has been in the neurosurgical department of the 5th hospital for the eighth day. He underwent a spine surgery last Tuesday.
“He is in a post-operation ward now. They will wait until he recovers a little, his stitches are healed and the swelling decreases, that’s all. Then he will need rehabilitation in another hospital or at least in another department. But I have doubts if it is possible… Dzima says his right leg is getting better, but he feels pain when he walks.”
Valyantsina, the mother of Zmitser Drozd, visited the colony in Babruisk on Tuesday to see her son:
“I saw him through the glass. But it cheered me up. He sent me a letter before. He wrote it was very difficult, he wouldn’t survive there. I was crying all days before the meeting! He said he worked, he has already changed three jobs: he made boxes and now he makes trays. He says the food is not tasty, he eats only porridge and does not eat soups, because they contain only water. He says he is fine and asks me not to worry. He hopes he will be at home soon, he is so sure.”
Valyantsina said that she was not allowed to pass a parcel to him, because Zmitser had already received one. She worries about psychological pressure on her son:
“Some people came and made everyone to sign a petition for pardon. They spent three hours with Zmitser. They pressed on him to make him sign it…”
Svyatlana Vinahradava, who married Pavel Vinhradau in the penal colony in Ivatsevichy ten days ago, did not receive letters from her husband:
“I have not had any news since I returned. A censor is on holidays now, but they do not have another one in the colony, Pavel said. I wait for letters. I expect I can receive them these days, but I haven’t got any.”
Letters from the penal colony in Navapolatsk, where Andrei Sannikov, Mikita Likhavid and Ales Kirkevich serve their sentences, are sent regularly and delivered to families during two days. Nadzeya, the wife of Ales Kirkevich, says:
“I have my birthday on August 4. He sent me a greeting card, I don’t know where he managed to find it. Ales feels fine, he writes this in letters and I saw this during a meeting with him. He reads books from Belarusian history. These are his favourite books. He only complains that he has not enough time to read. He works from 7 to 4:30 making wooden trays. He answers to a great number of letters he receives. He is happy to have letters, they mean so much to him.”
As for other political prisoners in the Navapolatsk penal colony, they were sent in different squads, but they can meet in the common canteen, Nadzeya says:
“He saw Sannikov and Likhavid. He writes that Mikita Likhavid is okay, he often smiles. He looks not very good: pale because of the lack of sun, thin, but morally strong. The prison uniform is very bad. It does not suit the presidential candidate, he says. He says the colony chief went on holidays just after Sannikov arrived in the colony. The prison authorities took a vacation to be safe.”