Supreme Court started consideration of anarchists' appeals

The Supreme Court started the consideration of the appeals filed by Ihar Alinevich, Mikalai Dziadok and Aliaksandr Frantskevich, activists of anarchist movement who had been convicted for political reasons.

However, their lawyers don't receive timely answers from the court. Alinevich's and Frantskevich's parents are concerned with the absence of news from their children. In particular, Tatsiana Frantskevich has received only a New Year postcard from her son for the time that passed since their last meeting in the colony on 17 December. She expected to receive some telephone calls from him, but didn't receive any either, which is quite unusual.

Ihar Alinevich's father, Uladzimir Alinevich, received only one telephone call from his son during more than a year of imprisonment. “It's quite surprising that he is unable to call home. At present the colony officials state they have lost his permission for making telephone calls. We have received just one telephone call during the whole time of his stay in the colony. It is hard for us to tell when he can phone, and it is impossible to sit at home all the time and wait for it,” says the father.

The situation of the third convict, Mikalai Dziadok, is quite different. His wife, Valeryia Khotsina, says she has no problems with receiving letters from him, except for a short break in the beginning of December.

Bear in mind that on 27 2011 Zhanna Khvainitskaya, Judge of the Zavadski District Court of Minsk, sentenced Mikalai Dziadok to 4.5 years of in a minimum-security colony, Aliaksandr Frantskevich – to 3 years in a high-security colony and Ihar Alinevich – to 8 years in a high-security colony. Human rights organizations declared them prisoners of conscience and demand their release from jail.