Sannikov being tortured at Mahilou pretrial detention facility
Ex-presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov of the Republic of Belarus, currently political pri-soner, is being transferred from the penal colony of Navapolatsk to that of Babruysk. There are reasons to believe that he will never reach the place alive.
For several days the family, colleagues, and defense lawyers of the Belarusian prisoner of conscience, Andrei Sannikov, have had no information concerning his whereabouts. On September 20, Belarusian authorities decided to transfer him from the Navapolatsk penal colony (where he was serving his five-year term) to the one at Babruysk. All that’s known to date is that he has been transported half of the way, and that he is being kept in the so-called press-unit at Mahilou’s SIZO (pretrial detention facility). The lack of information about the ex-presidential candidate is attributed to the secret police denying the inmate the right to use medical aid and to see his lawyer.
Sannikov’s wife Iryna Khalip was previously informed by Belarusian Interior Ministry people that her husband might be at the Mahilou SIZO. Iryna, however, insists that her husband has been at the Central Penitentiary of Vitebsk all this time. Aleksandr Otroshchenko, former prisoner of conscience, describes the Vitebsk prison eloquently but in no way encourachingly for Sannikov’s family: “Even ordinary inmates are worked over for the slightest deviation from the prison rules, or to make them sign voluntary surrender statements. Their arsenal, means of influencing the inmates are so diversified they could defy the most paranoiac imagining. I’m horrified to imagine what would happen to an inmate, should the chief warden receive ‘special instructions’ from his superiors. I’m afraid Sannikov is now in a worse situation compared to his stay in KGB pretrial custody.”
Uncertainty, anxiety over her husband made Iryna Khalip accuse the penitentiary authorities of inhuman brutality. She declared: “That’s how Lukashenka is demonstrating that no political prisoners will be released. Perhaps killing them would be easier than releasing them? No man, no problem.”
In fact, the abduction contract was carried out on the eve of the Eastern Partnership summit sche-duled for September 29-30 in Warsaw (this summit was the EU’s initiative, involving six European and South Caucasus countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine; Eastern Partnership was founded by 27 EU member countries and 6 partners on May 7, 2009, in Prague, meant to strengthen EU’s relationships with its neighbors in the East by enhancing political cooperation and economic integration).
European MPs hesitated before inviting a Belarusian representative, but then agreed on his attendance. On September 22, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told journalists he had talked German Chancellor Angela Merkel into allowing Belarus to be present at the summit, saying, “I’m explaining to Europe that Poland is very sensitive about the violations of human rights in Belarus, but that my country is prepared to make arrangements for a roundtable in that country.” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told a press conference in Warsaw (September 26) that Warsaw demanded from Minsk rehabilitation of all political prisoners before the start of the talks.
It is safe to assume that Minsk will not comply with this demand before the Eastern Partnership summit, as evidenced by the Sannikov case, the way the man is treated by the Belarusian secret police. On September 26 it became known that Sannikov was allowed to see his defense counsel. His lawyers immediately complained to the chief warden about the inmate’s condition and demanded additional security mea-sures. Besides, there is a constant threat to Sannikov’s health. He is constantly under pressure from the secret police. Like other political prisoners, he is required to sign a letter requesting the president’s pardon.
“Specially trained” Mahilou SIZO inmates warned Sannikov, currently Belarus’ number-one prisoner of conscience, that his transfer to Babruysk would make his situation even worse, that he might not even make it to Babruysk.
