News on the topic: detention conditions
24.07.2014 Police violently throw people in LTPs: Evidence by Minsk resident
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” received a complaint from a resident of Minsk who told about the artful ways in which police officers seem to be following a plan for filling the activity labor centers of Belarus (so called LTPs).
23.07.2014 Yury Rubtsou: “I was actually denied access to justice”
Opposition activist Yury Rubtsou filed on July 22 an appeal to the judicial board on civil cases of the Minsk City Court against a ruling of Minsk’s Maskouski District Court.
22.07.2014 Court in Homel evades consideration of police abuse complaint
Yury Rubtsou, an opposition activist of Homel, received by mail a ruling by the Maskouski District Court. In his complaint, the activist asked to prosecute the police officers, who on April 26 took his shirt and then brought him to court topless, as well as to oblige the law enforcement to return him his T-shirt reading “Lukashenka, Resign!” and “Arrest me! Why? I am against Lukashenka”.
18.07.2014 Liudmila Kuchura does not give up in confrontation with investigative authorities
After a probe sought by the wife of prisoner Piotr Kuchura, Liudmila, the Mahiliou interdistrict department of the Investigative Committee refused to open a criminal investigation into the illegal actions of the administration of penal colony No. 15. Liudmila Kuchura has appealed the decision to the City Prosecutor.
27.06.2014 Vasil Parfiankou: I have more than 20 violations
Human rights defender Anastasiya Loika has received a letter from political prisoner Vasil Parfiankou, who told her about his latest news.
26.06.2014 Piotr Kuchura’s wife: Some progress in investigation of torture report
The ongoing efforts of Viasna’s human rights defenders and the wife of Piotr Kuchura, who is serving a sentence of imprisonment in Mahiliou penal colony No. 15, have finally brought certain results. It must be a complaint sent to the UN Human Rights Committee on behalf of the convict, who was reportedly poisoned while in prison, that made the investigating authorities react to torture reports.
09.06.2014 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.
31.05.2014 Fresh probe launched in Valadarka prisoner death case
On December 4, the body of Ihar Ptsichkin, who died in Minsk’s prison in Valadarski Street in August 2013, was exhumed. However, his relatives have not yet received the results of the second autopsy, nn.by reports.
19.05.2014 Dzianis Karnou: There are opposition activists, tramps and prostitutes in Akrestsin Street detention center
In the evening of May 16, Dzianis Karnou, an activist of the Young Front’s Salihorsk branch, was released from the Center of Isolation of Offenders located in Akrestsin Street in Minsk, after serving 20 days of arrest. After his release, he described the circumstances of his detention, the trial and conditions in prison.
28.04.2014 Mahiliou Regional Prosecutor’s Office finds no violations of detention conditions
Responses received by a member of the United Civil Party, Anton Kastsou, from a number of government bodies say that an inspection failed to establish whether he was held in the same cell with the citizens previously convicted of criminal offences.
18.04.2014 Mikalai Autukhovich: “When I was released, former head of tax inspection asked for bodyguard”
Former political prisoner, Vaukavysk businessman told about the conditions of detention in Belarusian prisons, about his opinion on the entrepreneurial movement in Belarus and assessed the level of corruption in the country.
16.04.2014 Prisoners tell about radical approaches to correcting in penal colony No. 9 in Horki
Human rights defenders keep receiving information on the situation of prison inmates as part of a campaign of monitoring places of detention in Belarus. The Human Rights Center “Viasna” earlier covered the issue of using prisoners who cooperate with the administrations of prisons to perform sensitive tasks.
04.04.2014 Husband of critical campaigner repeatedly sentenced to three years in prison
On April 4, the Court of Mahiliou’s Kastrychnitski district, according to the decision of the Mahiliou Regional Court, confirmed the sentencing of Piotr Kuchura, whose wife Liudmila Kuchura is famous for her involvement in a campaign against lawlessness of law enforcement officials, to a three-year prison term. The verdict was announced despite the fact that the Regional Court found significant violations of the criminal procedural law during the first trial.
20.03.2014 Staff of detention center in Akrestsin Street refuse to accept parcel for Homel activists
Activists of "Young Front" from Homel, Stanislau Bula and Dzmitry Karashkou, were detained on March 11 outside the Russian embassy in Minsk while displaying posters saying "Putin, Hands Off Ukraine" and "No to War! Putin is an Enemy".
20.02.2014 Public control of prisons: Legislative restrictions
What is the meaning of the phrase “on the basis and in the manner prescribed by law” included in the rule of the Code providing public associations with the right to control the activities of prisons? Is control by the PMCs efficient?
