Authorities hide truth about political prisoner Barazenka

A lawyer wasn’t allowed to visit political prisoner Barazenka, activist of the civil campaign “European Belarus”, kept in a detention facility in Valadarski Street.

A visit was scheduled for Tuesday, November 18, but the lawyer was denied access to his client. A formal ground was absence of permission which must have been given by judge Yesman.

Lawyer of the political prisoner Pavel Sapelka refused to comment on the situation and gave an advice “to search answer in newspapers”. It should be reminded that judge Yesman and two other judges of the Tsentralny district of Minsk Tatsyana Paulyuchuk and Alena Illyina were accused of corruption by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, but still remain at their positions.

Alyaksandr Barazenka’s relatives and human rights activists worry about his destiny. Little information is known about the activist. His mail seems to be “filtered” thoroughly by the prison administration. Barazenka wrote in a letter of November 10 that he went on a hunger strike. Nothing is known about his health since that time.

Alyaksandr Barazenka was arrested on October 27 in a building of the Investigative Committee of Preliminary Investigation of the city militia department of the Minsk city executive committee, where he had been called in for questioning. The oppositionist is one of the figures of the Process of 14, a criminal case, instigated on article 342 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus against participants of a peaceful rally of entrepreneurs, held in Minsk on January 10, 2008.

10 opposition activists, namely Alyaksei Bondar, Artsyom Dubski, Mikhail Kryvau, Mikhail Pashkevich, Alyaksandr Straltsou, Alyaksandr Charnyshou, Tatsyana Tishkevich, Mikhail Subach and Paval Vinahradau were sentenced to 2 years of restraint of liberty without sending them to penal facilities for participating in protest actions of entrepreneurs. Minor Maksim Dashuk got 1.5 year of restraint of liberty.

Alyaksandr Barazenka was in Poland during the investigation. He is a student of Wroclaw University. After first year student Alyaksandr had been expelled from Belarusian State University for a protest action against cancelling of social benefits, he applied for education Kastus Kalinouski Program.

It is remarkable that the youth activist was arrested after the EU had suspended sanctions on high ranking Belarusian officials.