Public prosecutor's office does not react to violations of rights of Patrick who spent more than six months at Akrescina

Public prosecutor’s office of Maskouski district of Minsk replied on the appeal of human rights defender Nasta Loika concerning human rights violations of a citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Patrick Mangalua. He is waiting for the deportation to his home country for more than half a year at Akrescina Centre of Isolation of Offenders. The reply was quite predictable: because human rights defender did not provide documents necessary to prove the power to represent Patrick’s interests, the appeal will be left without consideration on merits.

The reply was signed by the deputy prosecutor of Maskouski district K. Skurchynskaja.

Human rights defender from the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Nasta Loika comments on the reply of the public prosecutor’s office:

“The reply is quite cynical because it is obvious that Patrick does not have any representatives in Belarus and especially at Acrescina. We even were not informed how exactly his name and surname are spelled”.

In the appeal to the public prosecutor’s office I paid special attention to the fact that this body is authorized to conduct inspections on the basis of citizen’s complaints and not only from a person him/herself or his representatives. Especially when a case has received broad publicity.  This power is enshrined in Article 27.3 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Public Prosecutor’s Office”: when performing control over observance of the legislation on the basis of the complaints and other information about violations of the legislation, that require immediate response of the public prosecutor’s office. In this situation the need of this kind of prosecutorial response is obvious. "

However, as follows from the reply, the prosecutor of the Maskouski district is not going to react to unenviable situation of de facto imprisoned citizen of Congo.

Nasta Loika is going to appeal to response in the Minsk city Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Earlier, Human Rights Center “Viasna” disseminated information about a black man named Patrick, most likely a resident of an African country, who has been held at Akrescina Centre for Isolation of Offenders for a long period of time. He speaks neither Russian nor English which makes it impossible for him to communicate with the administration of the Centre.

Details about situation of the black-skinned Patrick were provided by one of the activists of an anarchist movement and the administrative detainee, who was arrested for 20 days: 

"Patrick from the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been in prison for about six months. He does not speak Russian, he speaks only French. He was not provided with an interpreter. He is a veteran of permanent war being waged in Congo by global corporations. He was wounded several times. He arrived to Minsk to study at a university, and was enrolled to some study courses... The ambassador of his "democratic" republic called him and said that he should return home and go fighting again. Patrick tore his passport into pieces and refused to go home. The guy obviously has some problems - he does not talk, does not wash, hardly eats, and when he hears his name, it clearly causes suffering to him. Several times he has been put on a "swallow". He sits alone in the cell and often cries of despair ".