Maryna Adamovich: Mikalai speaks only to prison officers and his cellmate

Mikalai Statkevich is still in the investigative unit of the Mahilou prison.

Maryna Adamovich, the political prisoner's wife, gave an interview to Belsat TV channel.

“Mikalai Statkevich has been in the Mahilou prison for 19 months. Confinement conditions restrict his communication. He was allowed only one visit last year and could talk through a glass barrier and glass. This year I had the right to two visits and I already used these opportunities,” Maryna Adamovich said.

She stressed there were no chances to pass a parcel to Mikalai Statkevich this year.

“This is a prison with strict confinement conditions. He had a chance to receive a parcel at the end of last year, when he was transferred to a general unit, and I used it immediately. He has the right to get one parcel per year. Nothing has changed. He has been in the investigative unit since his was released from the punishment cell. The only people he can see and speak to are prison officers and his cellmate,” the political prisoner's wife said.

Mikalai Statkevich marked his 57th birthday yesterday. He was arrested after protests against the rigged results of the presidential election on December 19, 2010. More than 700 protesters, including presidential candidates Andrei Sannikov, Uladzimir Niakliaeu, Ales Mikhalevich and members of their teams, were arrested at the rally.

On May 26, 2011, Minsk's Partyzanski district court sentenced the politician to 6 years in a medium security penal colony. His confinement conditions were strengthened last year. Statkevich was transferred from correctional colony No. 17 in Shklou to prison No. 4 in Mahilou.

One of his latest letters was seized by a prosecutor's office. As it became known later that the politician wrote about rape threats to political prisoners.