Political prisoner Artsiom Prakapenka files petition for pardon

The political prisoner Artsiom Prakapenka has filed a petition for pardon to Alyaksandr Lukashenka. He did this under pressure from his parents. The petition was written in February, but there is still no answer.

Prakapenka was convicted in the so-called "case of anarchists" and was sentenced to 7 years in prison for damaging an administrative building. He got in prison when he was 20 years old and it was significantly affected by the penitentiary system: the young man had little contact with the outside world, he wrote almost no letters, he worked in the colony #15 Mahiliou.

For two years Artsiom's parents asked their son to write a petition for pardon, but the political prisoner for a long time refused to do this, spring96.org reports.

Pavel Syramalotau, who was tried along with Artsiom, filed a letter for pardon in 2012 and was released the same year. In addition, the pardon procedure was used to release more than 30 political prisoners, among them Pavel Vinahradau, Andrei Sannikau, Dzmitry Bandarenka, Dzmitry Us and others. But only some of them asked for pardon.