MINSK, Belarus, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A former presidential candidate in Belarus, Andrei Sannikov, has vanished from a penal colony without a trace, his wife said.
"Andrei Sannikov has disappeared from Babrujsk colony, neither his relatives nor his lawyer were told of the move," rights group Free Belarus Now said in a statement.
His wife, Iryna Khalip, said she arrived at the Babrujsk penal colony to find he was transferred to another location, though authorities didn't provide her with any further information, the rights group adds.
Sannikov was one of the candidates in the 2010 presidential elections in Belarus. In September, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko declared pardons for 11 opposition activists captured during post-election violence in Minsk last year. None of them were among Lukashenko's political rivals, however.
In October, his office announced it pardoned one of the candidates detained after the December demonstrations. Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported it was likely former candidate Dmitry Uss, though the president's office didn't release a name.
Sannikov received the second-highest vote total in the 2010 elections. Charter 97, a rights group he helped launch, claims he's been tortured while in custody.
Amnesty International describes him as a prisoner of conscience.
