Human rights activists from the “Viasna” HRC note that the detention conditions of the arrested in the TDF of Minsk, as well as in the TDFs of Zhodzina and Mahiliou, have significantly worsened.
Chlorine is poured on the floor of the detention center in Minsk. Earlier, UCP leader Mikalai Kazlou confirmed this. He was even taken to the hospital because of chlorine poisoning. Now Ihar Barysau, chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party, who served 15 days in jail, has confirmed this fact.
People released from Zhodzina temporary detention facility report that the guards beat the arrested men, take away the mattresses and blankets from the women and leave the light on at night.
Former detainees believe that the beatings were carried out by the riot policemen. The torture in Zhodzina TDF is also caused by overcrowded cells.
The cells in the Mahiliou TDF are also overcrowded. People are kept there in terrible conditions.
All books and mattresses were taken away from prisoners convicted on political grounds. They were not even given them for the night. As a result, people were forced to sleep on the floor. At night the TDF workers woke people up for the roll-call.
On Thursday of last week, no parcels were given to the detainees from their relatives, only “three bottles of mineral water and a roll of cookies.”
“Any act by which severe pain or suffering, physical or moral, is deliberately inflicted on a person to punish him for exercising his rights and freedoms, as well as to intimidate or force them to abandon their beliefs or social activities, is torture, forbidden by international treaties and Belarusian legislation, for which responsibility is established in the Criminal Code. The authorities continue to suppress dissent, only the methods and means are changed. Brutal beatings and the use of rubber bullets and stun grenades in the streets have been replaced by torture in detention centers and prisons. That’s why I urge the Prosecutor’s Office and the Investigative Committee to remember their function and protect the citizens of Belarus from arbitrariness; impunity for criminals generates disastrous consequences for the legal system of the state,” stressed human rights defender of the HRC “Viasna” Pavel Sapelka.
