Homel: provincial offenders can spend 80-200 days in remand prisons
On 2 October Andrei Tsianiuta and Dzmitry Shauchenka
were released from jail after serving 15 and 10 days of arrest respectively. Dzmitry
Tsianiuta was punished for handing out leaflets with invitations to a “silent
protest” action, and Andrei Tsianiuta – for leaflets inviting people to take
part in the People’s Assembly on 8 October.
During their arrest the young activists found quite an interesting thing: some
of the people were serving 80-200 days of arrest at once. The matter is that
there are no administrative prisons in Belarusian towns. That’s why those who
are sentenced to arrest are not transported to Homel, but are released. However,
when the police find a bus, they conduct a raid, trying to catch the offenders (about
20-30 people) and transport them to Homel. By this time, some of the offenders
have many arrest terms (up to 200 days).
According to information of Tsianiuta and Shauchenka, at present there are some
offenders from the town of Karma,
who serve terms varying from 80 to 200 days. The police explain it by saying
that there is no money for constructing local detention centers or transporting
such people to Homel after each trial.
