Political prisoner Dziadok thrown into punishment cell two times in autumn

Mikalai Dziadok was thrown into a punishment cell in September and October.

Radio Svaboda learnt it from the activist's wife, Valeria Khotsina.

“I know from his letters that he was placed in a punishment cell for two times – 10 days in September and 5 days in early October. Why was he punished? He wrote he had been punished in September because he wore a tracksuit in a cell. He didn't wrote about the October term.

He had a tooth removed. He has lost two teeth for three years. He says he is okay. He wrote that the heating wasn't turned on on October 15, but he added it wasn't very cold,” she says.

Mikalai Dziadok, Ihar Alinevich, Aliaksandr Frantskevich and Maksim Vetkin were tried in the Zavadski district court of Minsk on May 27, 2011. They were found guilty of hooliganism (part 2 of article 339 of the Criminal Code) and intentional destruction of or damage to property (parts 2 and 3 of article 218 of the Criminal Code). They were charged with carrying out attacks and arson attacks on buildings, in particular, holding an unsanctioned anti-military procession near the Ministry of Defence in 2009, throwing Molotov cocktails at the Russian Embassy in Minsk and a detention centre in Akrestsin Street in 2010.

Human rights activists think the verdict to Mikalai Dziadok and other convicts in the case is politically motivated and regard Dziadok as a political prisoner.