Watchdog

VITSEBSK, Belarus -- Some 20 posters of jailed former Belarusian presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau appeared on walls and fences in the eastern city of Vitsebsk today, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

The posters with Sannikau's picture proclaimed "Andrey Sannikau -- Our President."

The Sannikau posters were on display exactly eight months after the country's controversial presidential election -- held on December 19 -- which was followed by some 15,000 opposition supporters in central Minsk protesting the official results that gave an overwhelming victory to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

International observers said the election was flawed and failed to meet international standards, while Belaruisan activists and other protesters said the election results were rigged.

The December 19 demonstration was forcibly dispersed and hundreds of protesters were beaten and/or arrested. Dozens were later sentenced to jail terms and other penalties.

Sannikau was found guilty of organizing "mass unrest" and sentenced to five years in jail earlier this year. He is serving his jail term at the Navapolatsak labor camp in Vitsebsk Oblast, where the posters were put on display today.

Read more in Belarusian here

BAKU -- The mother of jailed Azerbaijani youth activist Baxtiyar Haciyev has sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to help secure his release, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports.

Haciyev (aka Bakhtiyar Hajiyev), a former parliament candidate who used Facebook to call for antigovernment protests earlier this year, was jailed in May for two years for evading military service.

In her letter, which she also sent to RFE/RL, Haciyev's mother, Solida Movlayeva, tells Clinton her son was jailed for "calling for freedom and democracy in Azerbaijan."

"I am imploring to you as a mother to another mother," Movlayeva writes. "Please imagine yourself as an ordinary citizen whose son or daughter was charged and imprisoned for criticizing an authoritarian government's policies and voicing concern about the sufferings of the people during his election campaign for the parliament and in his Facebook page."

Movlayeva writes that the courts in her country follow the orders of the government and so discarded evidence that proves her son's innocence.

"We have no other recourse but to seek outside help," she continues. "But all the petitions from abroad as well as support from NGOs have brought no outcome. We implore you not to fail us, Madam Secretary. You are our last hope. As one mother to another, please help me."

Movlayeva says her son has a preexisting eye condition which has worsened in the last few weeks due to harsh prison conditions but that he is continuously denied competent medical assistance.

In an interview with RFE/RL last week, Madat Quliyev, head of the Penitentiary Service, advised Haciyev's family to call him in person to arrange treatment in prison or any hospital in the country.

Haciyev, a 29-year-old Harvard graduate, ran unsuccessfully in the November 2010 parliamentary elections. The ruling party won an overwhelming majority of seats in the elections, which international observers and monitoring groups said were marred by numerous procedural irregularities.