Political prisoner Vitold Ashurak dies in detention

Vitold Ashurak, a BPF Party activist sentenced to five years in a closed trial, died today aged 50 in a penal colony in Škloŭ, his family told nn.by. The reported cause of death is cardiac arrest.

Ashurak was convicted under Article 342, Part 1 (participation in group actions grossly violating public order) and Article 364 of the Criminal Code (violence against a police officer).

The country's leading human rights organizations condemned the sentencing as politically motivated. The nature of the charges, however, is yet unknown.

In one of his recent letters dated two weeks ago, the prisoner said that the administration was increasingly tagging political prisoners with yellow patches on their prison clothes.