No one has seen Sannikov in the last two months

Lawyers and relatives of the presidential candidate have not seen him since November 8.

As Sannikov’s wife, Iryna Khalip, told BelaPAN news agency, lawyer and relatives of former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov have still be trying to gain a meeting with him, but without success.

Khalip’s mother-in-law, Alla Sannikova, visited the corrections department on December 30 and filed a written application for a meeting with her son. “They said they would answer within 15 days as prescribed by the law. The term expires at the end of the week,” Iryna Khalip says. “Lawyers laid an action to the Vitsebsk Court against actions by the chief of Vitsba-3 penal colony, who does not allow them to see their client.”

According to Khalip, one of the lawyers will visit the colony on January 12 to gain a meeting with Sannikov.

Khalip stresses relatives and lawyers have not seen Sannikov since November 8.

We remind that on May 14, the court of the Partyzanski district of Minsk sentenced Andrei Sannikov to five years in a medium security [penal colony for organizing mass disorders on December 19, 2010. The politician was supposed to serve his sentence in a penal colony in Navapolatsk (the Vitsebsk region). He arrived in the colony in late July, but on September 20, he was transferred to penal colony No. 2 in Babruisk (the Mahilou region) without giving any explanations.

It became known on November 16 he had been transferred from the penal colony in Babruisk to another penitentiary. On November 17, Iryna Khalip met with acting corrections department chief Syarhei Pratsenka, who said her husband had been transferred to another colony due to alleged danger of his life. He also said Sannikov would be transferred through a prison in Mahilou to the Vitsebsk region, but did not say to which penal colony. Sannikov was reported later to have been transferred to Vitsba-3 penal colony.

On December 27, Iryna Khalip received a short letter from her husband. Sannikov writes he received a parcel and notes: “I am trying to inform you and other people of what is happening to me, but you don’t receive my letters. Mail seems to have stopped working.”