Statkevich refuses to clean yard in Shklou correctional facility

The political prisoner's decision is explained with pressure on him.

Mikalai Statkevich's wife Maryna Adamovoch learnt that he filed an application to the prison administration, informing that he refuses to perform the so called self-service works – cleaning the prison territory. Why did it happen two months after the transfer of Mikalai Statkevich to the Shklou correctional facility? Maryna Adamovich notes her husband's decision is explained with pressure on him as a political prisoner, Radio Svaboda reports.

“He has fulfilled the task he set when he was transferred to the Shklou correctional facility. His task was to document all facts of violations of legislation and ill-treatment, which was applied mostly to political prisoners and also to other inmates. He said he planned to file four complaints to a prosecutor's office to prepare materials for further accusations. On March 24, Mikalai sent his last complaint and submitted an application, saying that he refuses to perform the so called self-service works. He says he worked ten times more that laws prescribe. The prison administration in fact used work as a form of ill-treatment. For example, he strained a muscle, and prison officers increased the area he had to clean fivefold. He had to do alone what usually three inmates do. He said he wouldn't give any grounds to punish him until his task was completed,” Maryna Adamovich said.

According to the politician's wife, the refusal to work is a serious violation of prison rules that may be punished with a term in a punishment cell or a cell-type unit.

“Mikalai does not rule out that he may be sent to a closed prison again on new charges,” Maryna Adamovich said.

Maryna Adamovich does not know how the prison administrated reacted to Mikalai Statkevich's refusal to work.

Former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment for organising disorders on the day of the presidential elections on December 19, 2010. The politician didn't admit his guilt and refused to apply for a pardon.

Mikalai Statkevich spent three years in the closed prison in Mahilou. He returned to the correctional facility in Shklou at the beginning of 2015, where he had already served 6 months in 2011. Mikalai Statkevich had earlier worked at a sawmill. He received an injury but didn't refuse to work.

“Mikalai said he was ready to work in workshops again, but he wasn't allowed,” Maryna Adamovich says.