Petition or pardon?

Lukashenka can pardon all political prisoners today, but he prefers to tell lies that it is impossible to do without petitions for pardon.

“Those who are left there and have not written the address to the president, they are sure to stay in jail. That’s all pressure. No one would press on me in this issue,” Alyaksandr Lukashenka said to journalists on April 21.

A usual trafficking in humans, cynical and inhuman, is taking place on the part of the dictator now. First Andrei Sannikov was forced to write a petition for pardon. The dictator avenged his strongest rival in the cruelest way. He was tortured in the KGB prison, then he was subjected to mocking transfer from one colony to another, kept in isolation, blackmailed. Zmitser Bandarenka who underwent a spinal surgery in prison, had to write a petition for pardon as he understood that just a little longer – and he would be deprived of an ability to walk completely.

Today Andrei Sannikov and Zmitser Bandarenka are not in prison, and imposing of further sanctions has been suspended by the West. But can oppositional politicians be considered free, when just 5 days after the release a spiteful bark was heard: “Two hours are enough – and they are in the colony again!” ?

The rest of the political prisoners are undergoing extreme pressure in prisons now. We have learnt from the terse from behind the bars that there are attempts to force each of them to write a petition addressed to Lukashenka. Mikola Statkevich has been transferred to a closed prison with much harsher incarceration conditions, and spent two months in a cell with a person suffering from TB. Ales Byalyatski who is rapidly losing sight, is kept in informational isolation. Syarhei Kavalenka, who is on the verge of death after a long hunger strike is placed into a mental hospital. Zmitser Dashkevich undergoes an unprecedented pressure. Mikalai Dzyadok has been transferred from Mahilyou colony into Shklou colony deprived of the right for meetings and parcels, placed into the punitive isolation cell for 5 days. Alyaksandr Frantskevich has been deprived of the long meeting with his family. Pavel Sevyarynets has been deprived of a right for conditional early release. Mikalai Autukhovich has serious health problems.

And what is happening to those who are considered to be at large? Pavel Vinahradau is under preventive supervision. Alyaksandr Atroshchankau is banned from leaving the country. Iryna Khalip and Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu cannot leave their houses at night. One more criminal case has been opened against Uladzimir Parfyankou. Alyaksandr Mauchanau has already been sentenced to 1.5 years’ imprisonment.

The dictator has only one aim – to destroy the opposition completely. To crash those in prison, and to bind hand and foot, and gag of those who are at large. And at the same time, he wants to avoid sanctions, by giving promises that he might amnesty the prisoners in summer.

No excessive optimism should be enjoyed with reference to that. Even on formal grounds, due to the charges and terms they had been sentenced to, political prisoners cannot be included in the amnesty. And we should note that Lukashenka has not said he is going to release the political prisoners. On the contrary, he stressed that “normal prisoners would be amnestied.

Besides, what is hindering Lukashenka to release the people right now, and not in a few months?

According to the Criminal Code of Belarus, the head of the state has a right to amnesty prisoners. There is not a word in the Criminal Code that prisoners should petition for pardon first. The procedure of pardon is specified by other statutory acts, but as long as the Criminal Code has greater force, under the law the leader can release people from the prison without asking any “kowtows” from them.

Moreover, many prominent persons have addressed Lukashenka with a request to pardon the political prisoners. Among them were Ryhor Baradulin, Viktar Dashuk, Zinaida Bandarenka, Radzim Haretski, Leanid Lych, common citizens and Christians.

It is said in all decrees on pardon that it should be done out of humanitarian considerations. And what out of humanitarian considerations are in subjecting political prisoners to tortures? Their lives and health are in real danger.

Now Lukashenka is playing for time, trying to deceive the European Union, prevent it from imposing sanctions, and hoping that in May he would be allowed to host the World Ice Hockey Championship – just because he can release political prisoners (maybe!) in the future. That is, the dictator makes conditions to Europe: do not make me angry, do not impose sanctions, let me torture people for some time more, crash them, destroy them morally and physically.

But the political prisoners behind the bars do not have time. Every minute counts for many of them now. As every day, every hour, every minute they are suffering from humiliation and cruelty. And we cannot just wait and observe how they are being slowly killed behind the thick prison walls.

Natallia Radzina