Mikola Astreika Visited by Lawyer

16.10.2006.

On October 16 Mikola Astreika, activist of the unregistered organization “Partnership”, was visited by his lawyer Valiantsina Shakhantsova. This is the first meeting of Mr. Astreika with his lawyer during the time he has spent in Shklou jail. Yauhenia Astreika, Mikola’s mother, also came to Shklou to see her son. However, the jail administration did not allow their meeting. Now Mrs. Astreika is trying to leave a food parcel for her son.

From Mikola’s last letter his family understood that he still didn’t know about the birth of his baby-daughter Lisa.

Let us remind the readers that Mikola Astreika was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment for acting on behalf of unregistered organization. He headed Partnership civic initiative that implemented social projects. Partnership also planned to organize independent observation of the presidential election in Belarus.

Mikola Astreika, Enira Branitskaya, Alexander Shalaika, and Tsimafei Dranchuk were found guilty of acting on behalf of Partnership. Branitskaya and Shalaika were sentenced to 6 months of arrest and have already been released after having served their terms. Dranchuk is sentenced to 1 year of imprisonment. Tsimafei Dranchuk is serving his term in Minsk jail. On October 13 Tsimafei was visited by his father. According to Valery Dranchuk, his son feels well and hopes to be released on parole soon – he has already served more than one half of his term.