Ivan Kruk Released from Prison Secretly

On 10 January a prisoner of conscience Ivan Kruk was released from Hlybokaie jail. According to Kruk’s information he was to have been released at 10 a.m. By this time his friends, journalists, activists of the United Civil Party and Aliaksandr Milinkevich came to the prison gate to meet him. However, the chair of the investigative department of Hlybokaie jail informed them that Ivan Kruk asked the guards to let him out at 8 a.m. and the deputy chair of the jail A.Harbunkou had the right to release him before afternoon.

Kruk’s location is still unknown. Journalists and human rights activists try to find whether he managed to get home which is about 150 kilometers away from jail.

We should remind that in May 2006 Lida district court sentenced Mr. Kruk to 6 months of arrest for ‘resistance to the police’. On 10 July he came to Astravets district police department and was taken to the investigative isolator of Smarhon. His relatives weren’t given any information about him for two weeks. Only after getting a letter from him they found that he was kept in Hlybokaie jail. In October 2006 Mr. Kruk was denied an early release because the prison guards found a still ledge in his belongings.