Activist Halina Lahatskaya, who had been kept in mental hospital for two weeks, gave the specifics of her story to Belsat TV.
Lahatskaya, who was a participant in ‘non-parasite’ protests in Minsk, had to spend the New Year in the National Centre for Mental Health in Novinki. Shortly before, her property was seized over unpaid fines.
“Bailiffs drove me to the wall and I landed up in Navinki [mental hospital in Minsk]. They violated all existing rules,” Lahatskaya says.
According to Lahatskaya, it is the actions of bailiffs that made her write a suicide letter. Then, threatening with trials, Navinki doctors forced her to sign a consent for voluntary treatment, Lahatskaya states. When the activist refused to take pills, medicines were injected by force.
“I am shocked. That place is worse than prison! A person is helpless there. Human dignity? Out of the question! A prisoner can at least ask for a piece of paper and write a complaint or to call an ambulance. [In Navinki] they do everything to turn a person into a somnambule,” she says.
Halina Lahatskaya believes that notorious punitive psychiatry is experiencing a resurrection in Belarus. She claims that it is the retaliation act for her being proactive, defending human rights and taking part in the protests.
The Belarusian authorities are trying to discredit the activists, human rights activists warn.
“The regime have resorted to an easy way to deal with dissidents – psychiatric units. I guess that information we have is incomplete. I know that that that we know not all. I know that local authorities do not hesitate to put ordinary people to mental hospitals. We should study, investigate and monitor such cases. But information is classified,” human rights activist Aleh Volchak says.
According to him, the authorities aim to prevent people from becoming organised. As for Lahatskaya’s case, Volchak is sure that her relatively quick release was the result of the effective work of human rights defenders, including filing complaints to the Health Minister and Prosecutor General.
“If we had failed to do it, she would have been kept there for at least six months. This is the minimum,” Volchak said.
The human rights activist is set to find out who had a hand in sending Lahatskaya to mental hospital.
Belsat.eu
