Sannikov wrote an appeal for pardon

On November 20, 2011 a former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov wrote an appeal for pardon addressed to Alexander Lukashenko. This was reported at a press conference with his wife Irina Khalip. According to her, he did so under a threat of torture, under strong pressure from the administration of the colony.

As UDF.BY reported earlier, Andrei Sannikov was detained along with his wife Irina Khalip during the night of 19 to 20 of December, 2010 after the crackdown of the rally against the elections fraud. On May 14, 2011 Partisansky District Court of Minsk has found Andrei Sannikov guilty of the organization of mass rioting and sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment in a strict regime colony.

From November 2011 even lawyers was not allowed to meet with the political prisoner and he was held in a so-called cell-type prison. This is an internal prison of a colony, which usually contain the worst violators of a detention regime. Sannikov now is transferred to a squad, where he is able to go to work and to move more.

A short meeting with relatives was allowed to the former presidential candidate for the first time in two months he spent in total isolation in a solitary cell. On January 24 Irina Khalip and Alla Sannikova met Andrei Sannikov. They talked with the politician through a glass and a sound recording.

At the press conference the journalist told that she wrote a note asking: "They wanted to kill our family?" and put to the glass, "Nasha Niva" reports. Her husband nodded.

"It's about saving a life, they can kill me at any moment", this is the note, according to Khalip, which Sannikov put to the glass at parting.

According to Irina Khalip, the political prisoner looks so emaciated, as if he was "10 years in prison camps".

Sannikov's wife has two versions of why Lukashenka doesn't respond to this appeal.

"Either Lukashenko doesn't control the situation in the country, and Belarus is ruled by "gray cardinals". Or, in reality, Lukashenka has no need in any papers. He has a task, not to pardon one of political opponents. He has a task not to release them alive", "Belarusian Partisan" quotes Irina Khalip.

On her own behalf she asked journalists "not to rush to draw conclusions". "If he comes out, if he comes out alive, he will tell you everything", said Khalip.