Andrei Sannikov is 57. “Our faith, hope and love are with you”

Andrei Sannikov, a presidential candidate in Belarus, turned 57 on March 8. He has been staying in the KGB detention centre for 2.5 months already.

The day before Alla Sannikova, the mother of the political prisoner, sent a telegram to her son to the KGB jail. The text was the following:

“My dear Andrei, happy birthday to you! I wish you health and moral courage. Our faith, hope and love are with you! Hold on! Fond kisses. Your mother.”

“I could have said a lot more to him, everything what I am thinking about now. I wish him to pass all these ordeals. I can say some things only looking into the eyes of my son. I would say I worry a lot, I am distressed for him, but I believe that the sun will shine on our street, too,” Alla Sannikova said in an interview to charter97.org.

Iryna Khalip, Andrei Sannikov’s wife, is under the house arrest and cannot send a telegram to her husband herself. It has been done by her parents.

“Today we have sent a telegram. We have been working on its text a lot, in order not to embarrass those who would be reading it to Andrei. Little Danik got very emotional about that. He said that he is waiting for his father to return o this day, and then he will call a taxi and take everyone to a glass house with a lift (Danik enjoys using lifts)… We have written to Andrei that everyone loves him so much, and that everyone joins our greetings to him; that we all remember him and hope that this is his last birthday when we are not together. We have written to him to have hope, to believe, to take case and wait.

We all are preparing to celebrate Andrei’s birthday, we want to spend this day together, for Andrei to feel intuitively that we are together, that the devilish scheme of the regime will fail and he will be released.

Evil will not triumph. These guys of the regime have gone too far, though they have not realized that yet, but everyone around knows that. They have crossed the line, which is forbidden. Otherwise it will be the end. The events of December 19 were an execution of the regime. This was the end. No matter how long they are staying in power, the end is inevitable. It is impossible to return to the previous state, no one will shake hands with them. They are to remain scum,” Uladzimir Khalip said.