Kavalenka: “Prison guard post is in next cell”

Alena Kavalenka received a letter from hr husband Syarhei Kavalenka. It was his first letter from a Vitebsk detention facility, where the political prisoner was transferred in May after a psychiatric evaluation in Navinki hospital.

“The letter is dated of May 9. It is the second day of his resumed hunger strike. He wrote he had gone in hunger strike again, but did not write the details, including his health. He asks about our family: if our daughter can walk and how our son studies at music school. He wrote about his solitary confinement: 'I am writing from detention facility No. 2 of Vitebsk, cell No. 98. This is a real  show box. There's not enough space to turn round. You need to squeeze between a bed and the wall. Prison guards have their post in the next cell,'” political prisoner's wife told Radio Svaboda.

On May 15, Alena Kavalenka was denied a meeting with her husband by the Vitebsk region court. “I was told Syarhei had too many meetings,” Alena Kavalenka said. Syarhei Kavalenka resumed hunger strike on May 8. Alena has no information about his health.

Syarhei Kavalenka, an activist of the CCP/BPF party was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment for violation rules of a suspended sentence he received for hanging out a white-red-white flag on a Christmas Tree in Vitebsk in 2010. Syarhei Kavalenka's appeal against the verdict is to be heard in the Vitebsk region court on May 18.