Wife travels to Vitsyebsk region for meeting with imprisoned ex-candidate Andrey Sannikaw

Journalist Iryna Khalip was expected to begin on Wednesday her extended conjugal visit with her husband and former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikaw in a correctional institution in Navapolatsk, Vitsyebsk region.

"I will tell him about what has happened recently and intend to hear what has happened to him behind the bars," Ms. Khalip told BelaPAN.

The woman did not take the couple's four-year-old son along, explaining that it would be hard for a young boy to spend 48 hours in one room.

Ms. Khalip said that she planned to treat the 57-year-old Sannikaw to his favorite dishes during the visit.

The visit will last until the morning of September 9.

On May 14, a judge of the Partyzanski District Court sentenced Mr. Sannikaw to five years in prison, finding him guilty of organizing "mass disorder" in connection with a post-election protest staged in the Belarusian capital city on December 19, 2010.

Ms. Khalip was sentenced to a suspended two-year prison term with two years' probation over the protest.