Imprisoned philosopher Uladzimir Matskevich labeled as ‘person prone to extremism’
Uladzimir Matskevich, who is being held in a one-man cell in Minsk pre-trial detention centre on Valadarski Street, has been listed as ‘a person prone to extremism’.
Being added to the above mentioned list means more severe treatment of an inmate and restricting their rights even in prison, e.g. there is a special place in the cell where such prisoner has to be when a jailkeeper enters; they are also expected to be regularly called in for preventive conversations.
Since mid August, only five letters have been handed over to Matskevich.
Uladzimir Matskevich is a prominent Belarusian philosopher, methodologist, TV host. The prisoner is a founder of the Agency of Humanistician Technologies. In addition, he was the first head of the board of the international consortium ‘EuroBelarus’.
Uladzimir Matskevich was detained on August 4 along with Ulad Vyalichka, the former head of the international consortium EuroBelarus, and analyst Tatsyana Vadalazhskaya, a coordinator of the Flying University. Their homes were searched; later; Vadalazhskaya and Vyalichka, were released.
He is accused of ‘organising actions that grossly violate public order’ (Article 342 of the Criminal Code of Belarus). In accordance with Belarusian law, after the charge has been slapped, the authorities may keep a suspect in custody for at least two months.
According to Matskevich, his charges did not contain any information of his acts or deeds, ‘not a single instance’.
“I understand that I was arrested because of my articles, statements, ideas, and thoughts, that is, I’m going to be tried for ‘malice’ according to Orwell. This is what best characterizes the current regime in Belarus,” he said.
The regime felt impunity, so it deals with everything that is a source of ‘any change, progress, a threat to dictatorship and arbitrariness’, the jailed scholar believes.
The Belarusian human rights community recognised Uladzimir Matskevich as a political prisoner.
belsat.eu
