News on the topic: detention conditions
25.08.2014 Lawyer allowed to visit political prisoner Vasil Parfiankou
Vasil Parfiankou’s counsel has been allowed to visit the political prisoner in the Horki penal colony and is going to see him in the near future. Obtaining such permission was difficult, Radio Liberty’s Belarus service reports.
22.08.2014 “Have you ever wondered how much sorrow has the twenty years of your office brought to the citizens of this country?”
Liudmila Kuchura has sent her petition to Aliaksandr Lukashenka to congratulate him on the 20th anniversary of his presidency, recalling that, thanks to his “parental care”, her husband Piotr Kuchura has already served ten years for a crime he did not commit.
13.08.2014 Lawyer Pavel Sapelka describes nuances of penitentiary statistics
Last week, there were voiced opposite statements about the number of prisoners in Belarus. One of the calculations was voiced by President Lukashenka, the other – by the Internet newspaper “Salidarnasts”. Human rights defenders react to the both of them with reasonable skepticism.
31.07.2014 Expert analysis of legal amendments governing detention in activity therapy centers (LTPs)
Having analyzed legal amendments governing detention in activity therapy centers (so called LTPs), Pavel Sapelka, an expert in the prison system law, states that LTPs still perform punitive functions, and the expected increase in the number of these institutions will certainly entail a boost in the number of persons held in them.
29.07.2014 Mikalai Autukhovich’s “main things”
During his stay in hospital in Minsk, former political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich in an interview to the Human Rights Center “Viasna” told about his attitude to life and health, which were often at risk during his detention.
29.07.2014 Vasil Parfiankou’s father: Solitary confinement and no letters allowed
“He sent a letter a week ago. He says that our last letter was received back on April 30. So our letters are not delivered to him. Then we sent him newspapers by a registered letter on May 5. He said that he did not receive the registered letter, either. So it goes. He’s in solitary confinement and he sees no one. The watchmen take him to the prison yard to walk for 30 minutes, that’s all his contacts with the world. You can go crazy! Let it be on their conscience,” says Vasil Parfiankou’s father in an interview to Radio Liberty’s Belarus service.
29.07.2014 Mahiliou Prosecutor orders fresh probe into torture report
Having considered an appeal by the wife of Piotr Kuchura, prisoner of penal colony No. 15, against a refusal to initiate criminal proceedings against the prison administration, Mahiliou City Prosecutor Mikalai Vulvach quashed the decision by the Mahiliou interdistrict department of the Investigative Committee.
24.07.2014 Police violently throw people in LTPs: Evidence by Minsk resident
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” received a complaint from a resident of Minsk who told about the artful ways in which police officers seem to be following a plan for filling the activity labor centers of Belarus (so called LTPs).
23.07.2014 Yury Rubtsou: “I was actually denied access to justice”
Opposition activist Yury Rubtsou filed on July 22 an appeal to the judicial board on civil cases of the Minsk City Court against a ruling of Minsk’s Maskouski District Court.
22.07.2014 Court in Homel evades consideration of police abuse complaint
Yury Rubtsou, an opposition activist of Homel, received by mail a ruling by the Maskouski District Court. In his complaint, the activist asked to prosecute the police officers, who on April 26 took his shirt and then brought him to court topless, as well as to oblige the law enforcement to return him his T-shirt reading “Lukashenka, Resign!” and “Arrest me! Why? I am against Lukashenka”.
18.07.2014 Liudmila Kuchura does not give up in confrontation with investigative authorities
After a probe sought by the wife of prisoner Piotr Kuchura, Liudmila, the Mahiliou interdistrict department of the Investigative Committee refused to open a criminal investigation into the illegal actions of the administration of penal colony No. 15. Liudmila Kuchura has appealed the decision to the City Prosecutor.
27.06.2014 Vasil Parfiankou: I have more than 20 violations
Human rights defender Anastasiya Loika has received a letter from political prisoner Vasil Parfiankou, who told her about his latest news.
26.06.2014 Piotr Kuchura’s wife: Some progress in investigation of torture report
The ongoing efforts of Viasna’s human rights defenders and the wife of Piotr Kuchura, who is serving a sentence of imprisonment in Mahiliou penal colony No. 15, have finally brought certain results. It must be a complaint sent to the UN Human Rights Committee on behalf of the convict, who was reportedly poisoned while in prison, that made the investigating authorities react to torture reports.
09.06.2014 Public prosecutor's office does not react to violations of rights of Patrick who spent more than six months at Akrescina
Public prosecutor’s office of Maskouski district of Minsk replied on the appeal of human rights defender Nasta Loika concerning human rights violations of a citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Patrick Mangalua. He is waiting for the deportation to his home country for more than half a year at Akrescina Centre of Isolation of Offenders.
31.05.2014 Fresh probe launched in Valadarka prisoner death case
On December 4, the body of Ihar Ptsichkin, who died in Minsk’s prison in Valadarski Street in August 2013, was exhumed. However, his relatives have not yet received the results of the second autopsy, nn.by reports.
