Prison authorities ignore hunger strike by Yury Rubtsou

Political prisoner Yury Rubtsou, who is serving a sentence in special settlement No. 7 in the village of Kuplin, Pruzhany district, has been on a hunger strike since January 22. Nevertheless, the administration has not yet officially registered the protest in the prison’s medical facility. The officials received on January 24 a statement from Rubtsou, specifying the cause of the hunger strike and putting forward his demands to formally register the hunger strike with the commandant’s office and the medical unit. According to Yury Rubtsou, as yet there is no reaction on the part of the administration, as well as from the doctors. All he was allowed to do was lying on the bed. Yury Rubtsou says he is having headaches, but in general he is well.

The reason for the hunger strike was a lack of jobs with an official average salary of 600 US dollars. The activist also asked to give an hour of airtime for the opposition in the election year.