Ihar Pastnou applies to prosecutor's office

The repressed psychiatrist wrote an appeal to the prosecutor's office and passed it to his trustee Siarhei Ryzhou so that the latter could filed it there. At present Mr. Ryzhou is prohibited to meet with Mr. Pastnou who is kept in the Vitsebsk regional center of Psychiatry and Narcology after uploading several critical video addresses on the web.

Siarhei Ryzhou talked to Ihar Pastnou in the presence of Natallia Vasilyeva, the head of the 2nd locked ward where he is kept. Mr. Ryzhou states that she reacted very nervously when Pastnou told him about the methods of the forced psychiatric treatment:

"Ihar Pastnou is a psychiatrist, he graduated from the Vitsebsk Medical Institute with honors. He is conscious which consequences the forced use of neuroleptics can have, when they are prescribed to sane people. He complains that he feels giddy and cannot walk after treatment with nevleptyl. He complained the medics about such reaction, but they started to give him this drug forcedly as a result: a male nurse clipped his nose so that he couldn't breathe and then had to swallow the medicine."

Siarhei Ryzhou recorded how Pastnou described being forcibly injected with “depress”:

“I refused from nevleptyl and “depress” in injections was prescribed to me instead of it. I protested by all means, but I cannot fight with them. I just lay on the bed, the nurses turned me around as a bag, took off my pants... Of course, I felt anguish! I felt even worse as I didn't know what I was injected with. Once I was told that “depress” in injections was coming to an end and I could be given it in capsules or another drug would be prescribed to me. However, I am a psychiatrist myself and know that it can be either achlorpromazine or haloperidol, both of which can have serious side effects, up to disability. Their effects on healthy people haven't been studied well enough, and they can be very complicated, up to disability. I have neither hallucinations, nor delusions, but such medicines are prescribed to me... And I am feeling worse and worse."

Mr. Pastnou wrote in his complaint about the methods of the medical treatment and how he got to the psychiatric hospital. He writes that he had not been registered for any mental illness and nobody proposed him a medical examination. However, on 15 August the chief physician Alena Martynava held a medical council, without inviting Mr. Pastnou, and decided to direct him to a forced medical examination. The decision of the commission was submitted to the city prosecutor's office and a permission was received for it there. On 16 August Mr. Pastnou came to work, to the narcological department of the hospital and was called to another room, allegedly for a piece of advice. There he was shown the ruling of the prosecutor's office and taken to the 2nd closed closed department, limiting him in communication and phone calls. He was allegedly examined for five days, and on 21 August a trial over him took place.

“Of course, on 16 August, when I was put there, my blood pressure went up because of the stress. However, on 21 August I was in a good state and mood and was going to the court, but wasn't taken there as I allegedly could hurt myself or someone else. although I was in a completely adequate condition, Judge Tatsiana Dzehtsiarova sentenced me to forced medical treatment, which was started immediately, though according to the law I had some time to file an appeal and the court decision has not yet entered into force."

Ihar Pastnou believes that his rights were violated and his lawyer filed an appeal against the court verdict. Mr. Pastnou found it necessary to emphasize that he wasn't proposed a voluntary medical examination and there were no reasons for it as he was mentally sane. He was also outraged that his colleagues held a medical council without informing him about it.
Since 23 August he was kept not in a separate ward, but together with other patients, who had been just taken to the hospital and hadn't been diagnosed yet. Among them there were people with evident disabilities, says Siarhei Ryzhou who considers it as an additional element of pressure on Pastnou.

He is sure that all refusals from the forced treatment are properly documented in his medical record. However, neither he, nor his proxy Siarhei Ryzhou are allowed to look at it.

Ihar Pastnou is still kept in isolation, his cell phone is kept by the head of the department and he is not called to the stationary phone of the hospital, on which patients are allowed to speak with their relatives. Before the visit of Siarhei Ryzhou he didn't know that his situation was well-known to his compatriots and human rights defenders, including international ones. He was very glad to find out that “Amnesty International” stated its readiness to consider him a prisoner of conscience.