News on the topic: detention conditions
16.02.2015 Mikalai Statkevich reports limited access to information
Political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich, the only candidate in the presidential election of 2010 still held in prison, has sent a letter to journalist Barys Vyrvich, which he received on 13 February. The letter was written by Mikalai Statkevich on 7 February.
26.01.2015 Political prisoner Statkevich accused of “avoiding community service”
The confinement regime for Mikalai Statkevich has not been changed. He wrote it to his wife Maryna Adamovich. The authorities of the Shklou prison think he “failed to choose a course of correction”, BelaPAN reports.
22.01.2015 Human rights organizations demand an immediate cessation of the criminal prosecution of political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok and his release from jail
FIDH, HRC "Viasna" and BHC express deep concern with the serious threats to the life and health of Mikalai Dziadok and emphasize that the entire responsibility for his safety and protection lies with the administration of the prison No. 4 in Mahiliou and the management of the Department of Corrections of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus.
19.01.2015 Mikalai Statkevich faces two violation reports after transfer to Shklou colony
Political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich has been accused of two violations in just two days of his stay in the Shklou penal colony.
29.12.2014 Political prisoner Ihar Alinevich visited by parents
Political prisoner Ihar Alinevich, who was sentenced to eight years in prison under strict regime, has been allowed to see his parents during a long meeting, which however lasted only 24 hours instead of the usual three days, according to Valiantsina Alinevich, the political prisoner’s mother.
24.12.2014 Human rights activist Leanid Svetsik: It is necessary to solve the problem of life and health insurance of prisoners
Vitsebsk human rights activist Leanid Svetsik has written to the House of Representatives with a proposal to consider the issue of life and health insurance of prisoners (convicts). MPs have forwarded the proposal to the Department of Corrections and the Ministry of Finance. The latter answered that the authorities were not interested in the introduction of compulsory insurance of life and health of persons held in prison.
23.12.2014 Prosecutor’s office rejects complaint against degrading conditions of detention in Salihorsk
At the request of Uladzimir Lemesh, an activist of the European Belarus opposition movement, the Salihorsk District Prosecutor’s Office has checked the conditions of detention in the city’s police department. As a result of the probe, prosecuting authorities identified certain violations of regulations for special institutions of the Interior, says a response by the supervisory authority.
22.12.2014 Relatives visit political prisoner Yauhen Vaskovich
Political prisoner Yauhen Vaskovich has been visited by his mother and grandmother. The meeting lasted two hours, according to the press-service of the Belarusian Christian Democracy.
19.12.2014 Eduard Lobau: I have to look around and decide what to do next
The Minsk office of the Belarusian Popular front hosted today the first press conference of former political prisoner Eduard Lobau, who was released yesterday after serving four years of imprisonment in penal colony No. 22 in Ivatsevichy.
19.12.2014 Investigative nonsense: Shoes taken off barefooted body
The recent decision on the results of another probe in connection with the death of Aliaksandr Akulich in Svetlahorsk detention center demonstrates unacceptable negligence of investigator Viachaslau Petachenka.
19.12.2014 Detention center in Niasvizh to be closed for repairs after complaint from activist
Aliaksandr Vaitseshyk, an activists of the trade union of radio electronic industry (REP), has received a letter signed by head doctor of the Republican Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Department of Finance and the Rear of the Ministry of the Interior, A.L. Zhuk, which says that the experts of the state agency have considered his complaint against the facts of non-compliance with sanitary-epidemiological legislation in the temporary detention center of the police department in Niasvizh. The letter says that during a probe has confirmed some of the facts mentioned in his complaint to the Prosecutor General.
17.12.2014 Andrei Haidukou describes detention conditions in Polatsk and Navapolatsk
Andrei Haidukou, member of the organizing committee of the party Belarusian Christian Democracy, was detained for handing out leaflets on November 21 in Navapolatsk and on November 24 in Polatsk. On November 25, he was sentenced to 10 days in jail, and on December 5 – to another five days. The activist told human rights defenders new details of these arrests and the trials, as well as about the conditions in the detention center of Navapolatsk.
16.12.2014 Vasil Parfiankou: I spent only 29 days in the colony’s residential area
Former political prisoner Vasil Parfiankou, who has been released after serving his sentence in penal colony No. 9 in Horki, told about the conditions of detention in the colony and about the preventive supervision he has been subjected for a period of one year.
25.11.2014 Trade union activist complains about detention conditions in Niasvizh jail
Aliaksandr Vaitseshyk, activist of the independent trade union of radio-electronic industry (REP) in the city of Baranavichy, who served a 2-day detention in the police department of Niasvizh for requesting a book of complaints in a local canteen, has written a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office. In his complaint, the activist tells about poor conditions of detention and asks to close the temporary detention facility of the Niasvizh district police department.
24.11.2014 Fresh probe to be launched over death in Svetlahorsk jail
The Svetlahorsk District Court has quashed a decision by the district department of the Investigative Committee, which earlier refused to open a criminal investigation into the death of Aliaksandr Akulich, who died while serving an administrative arrest in the detention center of the town’s police department in May 2012. The judge agreed with all the arguments of the victim’s mother and the human rights defenders of the HRC “Viasna”.
