Detention facility in Smaliavichy: Disgusting food, bucket instead of toilet, dirty mattress

An activist of European Belarus civil campaign describes confinement conditions in a temporary detention facility in Smaliavichy.

Leanid Kulakou prepared a complaint against the prosecutor of the Minsk region. According to him, the prosecutor's office in Smaliavichy covers police chiefs. The activist said it to charter97.org.

“Cells are in the basement. Confinement conditions are more than terrible. The only good thing is that the staff treated me very well,” he says.

Leanid Kulakou says he didn't have a medical checkup on admission to the detention facility. The only personal care product he received was a bar of hard soap.

“My cell didn't have the equipment and things it must have in accordance with the law: a canister with drinking water, a bedside table for storing personal care items, the radio, the ventilation system, a TV set, table games. The bed was metal, with the base made of four strips. It was impossible to lie on it. The mattress was thin and dirty,” he said.

The activist complains about the lack of fresh air and light, as well as about bad smell and low temperature in the cell.

“There was no toilet. We had a bucket. It was humiliating to use it. Jail staff allowed to change it two times a day,” he writes.

The activist thinks these and other facts to be violations of prison rules and expects proper measures to be taken in this regard.