Mikalai Statkevich was sentenced on 26 May 2011 to 6 years of imprisonment in a high security regime colony. On 4 May this year, the court has decided to send Mikalai Statkevich to further serve his sentence from the colony to the prison.
“The presidential candidate in 2010 Mikalai Statkevich was illegally sentenced after the last campaign, and has already spent nearly five years behind bars. Mikalai has been recently transferred from the colony to the prison after a brief break. We see this as an attempt of the slow assassination of the leader who, despite the pressure, continues to struggle for the rights of Belarusians, even behind the bars. We declare that without the release and full rights restitution of presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich and all political prisoners in Belarus, no elections could be considered free and fair, and the campaign of 2010 can not be considered completed, “- is said in a statement of the initiative group on the nomination of Mikalai Statkevich.
In accordance with the Criminal Code, the crime of which the politician was convicted is classified as very serious. Persons convicted of crimes of this kind cannot be exempted from punishment by granting the amnesty. The article, according to which Statkevich was convicted, entered into the list of articles that do not provide for reducing the sentence by one year. Thus, an amnesty law cannot become a tool of the political prisoner’s release.
The society is actively forced to think that Statkevich could be released only if he writes a petition for clemency to President Aliaksandr Lukashenka. Lukashenko himself made such statements in public more than once: “The four did not want to be in prison. They are not in prison. One of them, who is there now, he wants to be a prisoner, and he believes that “here I am a prisoner, it will make me a hero in Belarus.” Well, it is not forbidden to think so, if you want – so be it, “-commented the head of state in April.
According to Pavel Sapelka, lawyer at the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich cannot be amnestied, however, saying that Statkevich has to write a petition so that Lukashenka could release him is wrong, because according to the existing legislation, Mikalai Statkevich can not only be released without any petitions but also returned to political life.
“The pardon is granted by the President of the Republic of Belarus; by an act of pardon a person convicted of a crime may be fully or partially exempted from punishment or exempted from punishment conditionally, or the unserved part of punishment can be replaced with a softer punishment, or the prisoner’s conviction may be expunged. Since the provisions of the Criminal Code do not mention any indication or reference to the order established by other regulations, the pardon may be carried out without complying with any pre-conditions or formalities of the prisoner’s request, recognizing his guilt, remorse, etc.” – said Sapelka.
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Mikalai Statkevich is one of the former presidential candidate who has been kept behind bars since the presidential election of 2010. The court found him guilty of organizing a mass riot and sentenced him to 6 years in prison. Statkevich pleads not guilty and refuses to file a clemency petition for Lukashenka.
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