Political Prisoner Dzmitry Palienka’s Meeting With Father Canceled

Dzmitry Palienka is to be released on October 24.

Dzmitry Palienka’s father Aliaksandr was supposed to meet with his son on September 6, but the meeting was rescheduled for September 25. It is still unknown, if it takes place.

"I am waiting for an answer, a call or a letter from my son. But today is September 17, and there is no information," – Aliaksandr Palienka told a Radio Svaboda correspondent.

Before that, Dzmitry wrote that the prison administration had searched his belongings. They seized all the letters and postcards that he wanted to send and his notes with the phone numbers of relatives. The meeting with his father was canceled because those things "did not correspond to the list."

"Consequently, the prisoner will not be able to get the care package that his friends and relatives want to pass him along through his father," – activist Maryna Nasenka wrote on Facebook.

Dzmitry Palienka is to be released on October 24.

24-year-old activist Dzmitry Palienka is serving two years in prison for peaceful resistance to restrictions of cycling. In October 2016, he was convicted of "violence or threat of violence against a police officer" and "the manufacture and distribution of pornographic materials or items of a pornographic nature."

Amnesty International recognized Dzmitry Palienka a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.