News on the topic: penitentiary system
07.04.2023 Extreme forms of protest used by political prisoners in Belarus
Severe pressure, torture, and unbearable living and working conditions increasingly force political prisoners to express their protest using harsh methods.
22.02.2023 Sports in custody: how the right turned into a method of pressure
People behind bars are not just deprived of the right to physical activity — it becomes another method of pressure from the authorities, when impossible conditions are created for any, even minimal exercise.
11.01.2023 “Gas sprayed into ventilation reached us”: Akrescina facilities detention conditions throughout 2022 in detainees own words
Viasna's month-by-month chronicle shows the scale of repression and how the methods of pressure on Belarusians used by law enforcers and authorities have (not) changed throughout 2022.
15.12.2022 How to send a parcel to a political prisoner from abroad?
At the moment, there are more than 1,400 political prisoners behind bars in Belarus. For most of them any correspondence is blocked, but parcels in such a situation is a reliable way to show support and send the message they’re not forgotten.
11.11.2022 A friend on Yury Kavaliou's coercive mental treatment: “This is nothing less than punitive psychiatry”
The political prisoner has been in a psychiatric hospital since August 2022.
15.03.2022 Heads beaten and ribs broken: how police treats anti-war protesters in Minsk
Former detainee talks about his arrest and conditions in prison
13.12.2021 Mikita Yemialyianau thrown into a punitive isolation cell again
Political prisoner and anarchist Mikita Yemialyianau was thrown into a punitive isolation cell again. In total, he will spend 30 days there.
21.10.2021 “He tore my clothes, beat and insulted me.” Survivor stories
Nearly one year ago, on October 25, Aliaksandra (not her real name) was arrested while she was hiding with her friends in the entrance hall of an apartment building after the dispersal of a peaceful protest in Minsk. She was half strangled with her own scarf and her shoulder was injured. The girl told her story to Viasna.
19.10.2021 Prison conditions for people arrested for commenting on killed KGB officer amount to torture
Most people detained last month for commenting on the Zeltser case are being held in inhumane conditions, according to their families.
12.10.2021 Nearly 100 days in prison: Husband and wife convicted for seventh time over “extremist content” in private messages
On October 11, Siarhei Krupenich and Anastasiya Krupenich-Kandratsiyeva, a young couple in Minsk, were sentenced to 15 and 14 days of “administrative imprisonment” for exchanging “extremist content” in a private conversation on the Telegram messaging app.
06.10.2021 Political prisoners punished by solitary confinement for answering letters of solidarity
Political prisoners serving their sentences at penal colony No. 17 in Škloŭ are sent to solitary confinement or punishment cells if they reply to letters of support they receive from people they don’t know.
30.09.2021 Imprisoned punk rocker Ihar Bantsar to spend remainder of term in penal colony
The decision was taken in response to a request by the administration of correctional facility No. 9 in Viciebsk, where the man had already served three and a half months.
29.09.2021 Political prisoner Natallia Hersche to be sent to maximum-security mail prison
Political prisoner Natallia Hersche will serve the remainder of her 2 ½-year sentence in a maximum-security prison, after spending nearly 12 months in a general-security penal colony, RFE/RL’s Belarus service learned from Natallia’s brother Henadz Kasiyan.
16.06.2021 Stop torture and criminal prosecution of prisoner Artsiom Anishchuk!
Statement by the Board of the Human Rights Center "Viasna"
09.06.2021 Prisoner swallows “metallic objects” to protest torture
Artsiom Anishchuk swallowed several metallic objects to avoid “physical and psychological violence” he has been subjected to during his stay at penal colony No. 15 in Mahilioŭ, novychas.by said quoting the inmate’s lawyer, who managed to see his client for the first time since May 13.
