EU representative not allowed to attend trial over Statkevich

The court trial in the case of political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich starts in Shklou penal colony.

It is stated on his Facebook page by a human rights activist and a former political prisoner Ales Bialiatski.

“Mikalai Statkevich’s wife Maryna Adamovich has been permitted to enter the court on her application, while the EU representatives haven’t,” Bialiatski writes.

Journalists and human rights activists are not allowed to attend the court.

We remind that today, May 4, the court over Mikalai Statkevich in Shklou penal colony starts. It is to change the regime of serving the sentence for him, it is to be substituted by prison regime. The politician is charged with violation of the internal rules and insubordination to demands of the colony’s administration.

Mikalai Statkevich is the only presidential candidate in Belarus in the election-2010 who is still imprisoned. On May 2011 he was sentenced to 6 years of deprivation of freedom on charges relating mass riots on the polling day. International human rights organisations recognized Statkevich a political prisoner.

Initially the convicted politician served a sentence in the colony №17 in Shklou, however in January 2012 conditions were harshened for him, and he was transferred to Mahilyou prison №4 for 3 years. After this term, on January 12, 2015, Statkevich was returned to Shklou penal colony, where in the first two days two reports were drawn up against him for violation of internal rules.