On February 26 the criminal case of the political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok was tried in Mahilyou prison. He was charged with violation of the rules of serving the sentence under Article 411 of the Criminal Code of Belarus.
Dziadok was charged with 16 violations of prison rules, such as wearing sportswear suit instead of prison uniform, sleeping after ‘Wakey’ signal, not sleeping after lockdown, talking to prisoners from other cells.
The prosecutor asked the court to punish Mikalai Dziadok by 1 year in a maximum security penal colony. It is a maximum term under this article. The defence noted that such cases are extremely rare and can never be started because of such minor violations. The lawyer asked the court to justify Mikalai. As a result, Judge Ihar Shvedau sentenced the political prisoner to one more year in prison. Besides, he is to serve four days out of his four-and-a-half-year term.
Mikalai pleaded not guilty, although he admitted most of the violations.
“I would like to remind every representative of punitive bodies here, any system based on lies, violence, oppression will collapse someday and destroy its every supporter. And I would not like to be in your shoes when it happens.”
Mikalai Dziadok also said that being a political prisoner he was subjected to prison administration’s pressure and all the present in the court knew it. According to him, a new criminal prosecution was initiated by secret services to make him sign a petition for pardon “through psychological pressure and to try to quash any protest movements that may occur on the eve of presidential elections.”
Mikalai noticed the prison had not had any positive impact on him and in general it did not have such functions. Political prisoner called the Article he was tried for absurd as he was already punished for all his violations. And now he is punished for the same crime with an additional year. He also noted that that article was a way to put pressure on dissenting prisoners.
Dziadok was supposed to be released on March 3, 2015 after serving his punishment.
We call for solidarity with our repressed comrade!
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