Maskouski District Court of Minsk refuses to consider Aleh Volchak's appeal

On 10 July Aleh Volchak addressed the Maskouski District Court of Minsk with an appeal against the actions (inaction) of the state institution resulting in inhuman and humiliating treatment, asking to close down the delinquents' isolation center in Akrestsin Street for bringing it in line with the UN standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.

The appeal concerns the 4-day arrest to which Mr. Volchak was sentenced on 30 January 2012. He thinks that the conditions in the delinquents' isolation center are inhuman, they insult human dignity, don't correspond the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners of the UN, the internal regulations of institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and violate the Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“Judge of the Maskouski District Court Volha Husakova refused to bring a case as it is allegedly beyond the competency of the court. To her mind, conditions in the detention facility are determined by the internal regulations of special institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs which executed the administrative punishment in the form of arrest, adopted by a ruling of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus,” said Mr. Volchak.

The human rights defender considers the court ruling as a denial of justice and effective means of legal defense, guaranteed by the Constitution ad the ICCPR, He intends to continue struggling for the closure of the delinquents' isolation center. “I have already filed a private appeal against the verdict to the Minsk City Court,” said Mr. Volchak.