Political prisoner Prakapenka: cold workshop, bronchitis and "Populyarnaya Mehanika"

In the evening of 4 February the 22-year-old political prisoner Artsiom Prakapenka phoned home.

He had a ten-minute telephone talk with his mother. "He has just phoned us!" said his mother Viyaleta Prakapenka to "BelSat"". This the first day he returned to work after recovering from bronchitis. Before this, he spent a week in bed, but still hasn't completely recovered from his illness."

According to Artsiom, it is very cold in the cell and the workshop and many prisoners of the Shklou colony fell ill because of it. He asked the mother to send him vitamins.

"What concerns all other things, there are no changes", says the mother. "He is reading the "Populyarnaya Mehanika" ("Popular Mechanics") magazine. He wasn't so fond of it before, but now asks me to subscribe him to it. He spoke in a lively voice. At the departure he said to me: "Mom, I know everything will end well".

Artsiom Prakapenka was born in Hrodna. Having finished school, he entered the Babruisk branch of the Belarusian State Economic University. On 18 May 2011 was sentenced to 7 years in high-security prison together with Pavel Syramalotau and Yauhen Vaskovich for throwing a bottle with napalm at the building of the Babruisk KGB Department. Artsiom Prakapenka is kept in colony #17 in Shklou.