Political prisoner Dziadok spent 8 days in punishment cell

He was thrown into a solitary confinement cell.

Radio Svaboda learnt it from Mikalai Dziadok's wife Valeria.

“I received a letter from him after his release from the punishment cell. He writes he spent there 8 days, but doesn't say what was the cause. He says he was thrown into a solitary confinement cell. Statkevich is also held in solitary confinement. Vaskovich was in solitary confinement, too. So, they decided to use this method to Mikalai, too,” she says.

Mikalai Dziadok's previous term in the punishment cell was in August. He marked his birthday there. A parcel with medicines was delivered when Dziadok was in the punishment cell, but he received it after his transfer to the general unit.

“Mikalai's term expires in four months. I hope he will withstand,” Valeria says.

Mikalai Dziadok, Ihar Alinevich, Aliaksandr Frantskevich and Maksim Vetkin were sentenced to imprisonment by Minsk's Zavadski district court on May 27, 2011. The were found guilty of violating part 2 of article 339 of the Criminal Code (hooliganism) and parts 2 and 3 of article 218 (intentional damage to or destruction of property). They were charged with carrying out attacks on buildings and arsons, holding an unsanctioned antiwar picket near the Ministry of Defence in 2009, throwing Molotov cocktails at the Russian embassy in Minsk and the detention centre in 2010.

Human rights defenders say the verdict against Mikalai Dziadok and other people in the case was politically motivated. Mikalai Dziadok was recognised a political prisoner.