Anarchy in Mahiliou detention center

The head of this institution Krasnou can not establish who is kept in the same cells with the people who are convicted for administrative offenses. This follows from his response to an activist of the United Civil Party Anton Kastsou, who was serving a three-night arrest for organizing protests against the introduction of a new tax on motor cars, "Stop Tax".

Anton Kastsou shared a cell with a citizen of Ukraine, who was awaiting deportation. That citizen had previously served a sentence of 4.5 years in prison for robbery,whereas Anton has no prior convictions.

In the letter, signed by Mr. Krasnou, the official states that it is impossible to establish with whom the UCP activist was kept in the same cell on December 26-29, 2013. Human rights activist Barys Bukhel filed an appeal to the prosecutor's office concerning the keeping of Mr. Kantsou in the same cell with a person with prior convictions, which is prohibited by the law. The proseucutor's office forwarded it to the police bureau of the Mahiliou Regional Executive Committee, which in turn sent the complaint to the head of the detention center, whose actions were appealed. "This response points at the absence of any discipline and accounting at the detention center. The policemen who are guilty of such situation must be brought to justice. Earlier, similar complaints had a positive result, and police were punished with disciplinary action," said Mr. Bukhel. It should be noted that the human rights defender has already started to prepare a complaint against the head of the detention center to the Office of Prosecutor General.

Let us remind that on December 20 a street rally “Stop Tax” was held in Mahiliou. The action was organized through the social network "VKontakte". Then several motorists drove through the city center with enabled alarms and signals. The traffic police stopped some of them, but didn't fine anyone. There weren't many participants. After the end of the event, Anton Kastsou's house was searched. The policemen also took away his computer for “examination”. When he came to them to
get it back, they drew up a report of violation of the law on mass events. The same day the activist Was taken to court. Judge of the Kastrychnitski District Court of Mahiliou Alena Seliadtsova found him guilty and sentenced him to three days of arrest.