Mikalai Statkevich allowed meeting with priest

A political prisoner wrote his wife that he had met with a priest on November 1.

“A month and a week have passed since the visit of the Papal Nuncio, when Mikalai Statkevich was promised the problem would be solved. He writes the priest is young, but very witty and friendly. He recently participated in a debate on casinos on the Belarusian TV,” political prisoner's wife Maryna Adamovich said after returning to Minsk form Brussels, Radio Svaboda reports.

Mikalai Statkevich also wrote repair works had begun in the cell where he had lived since January.

“Water has been dripping from the ceiling since early spring. Whitewash was peeling off the ceiling. Mikalai writes he has the same cell mate in another cell in the investigative unit, because they don't want him to be moved from the closed prison. No water drips from the ceiling. The cell has the wooden floor. The floor in the old cell will be  laid under rules. Experienced people say the concrete floor increases the risk of getting TB or rheumatism,” Maryna Adamovich quotes Mikalai Statkevich's letter.

In his another letter,  the political prisoner says the prison doctor will allow him one medical parcel in four months.

“The law sets no restrictions. Prisoners can receive as many parcels as they need. For example, if a parcels contains eye drops, which Mikalai needs, they should be opened. But they must be used within a month or two after opening. It means that they violate common medical and hygienic requirements,” Maryna Adamovich says.