Andrei Bandarenka: there is no public control over penal colonies and pre-trial prisons

“We can draw many examples of torture in the Belarusian prisons,” Andrei Bandarenka, a representative of the civil association Platform, who had spent almost two years behind bars for alleged swindle and was released because of “absence of corpus delicti”, stated in his interview with BelSat.

Mr. Bandarenka is an initiator of the investigation into the case about the suicide attempts among prisoners of the Hlybokaye penal colony. The prisoners had to cut their veins to stop mockery on the part of the prison administration. Yury Linha, a former convict, told about it. “I went through it, I saw how they mock at prisoners,” said Andrei Bandarenka. “We can draw many examples, when people were taken to prison in winter (in particular, it concerns the Vitsebsk pre-trial prison) and were put in a cell with water, where the temperature was below 0 Celsius. The people had to make some movements all night – to drop curtseys, make press-ups, etc. - just not to freeze there. Nether the prison administration, nor the supervising prosecutor paid any reaction to appeals of such prisoners.

“I can quote the chief ideologist of the penal colony, who told me: “It's easier for me to report about your death than about a dog's.” It reveals their attention. They are proud of the closeness of their institutions. They solve all kinds of issues with the supervising prosecutor – the complaints aren't let out anywhere. As a result, the people become rightless,” said Mr. Bandarenka.

To his mind, the only solution is the establishment of public control. “We have a good Criminal Code, and the Criminal-Executive Code is not bad. But we need the control of civil over the penitentiary institutions. If the authorities don't want to let civil organizations there – they can let the prisoners' parents instead. As soon as the prison administrations will learn that there is a real supervision organ above them – these violations will be stopped,” emphasized the civil activist.