Political prisoner Ihar Bantser transferred to open-type correctional facility
Political prisoner Ihar Bantser, who was sentenced to 1 month and 25 days in jail for allegedly violating prison rules, is again in “chemistry”. On October 29th, the political prisoner was taken to the open-type correctional facility No. 9 in Vitsebsk.
In March 2021, the Hrodna musician Ihar Bantser was sentenced to 1.5 years of freedom restriction or the so called “chemistry,” for protesting against falsified election results, political persecution and violence by security forces. Judge Dzyanis Alyakseyenka sent political prisoner Ihar Bantser to a general regime colony. The political prisoner was accused of violating the prison regime six times. For this he was sentenced to one month and 25 days in jail.
On October 29th, it emerged that the political prisoner was taken to the open-type correctional facility No. 9 in Vitsebsk.
He returned to the facility due to the appeal of Bantser’s lawyer against the court decision to replace the punishment with a harsher one. Violations of order, which Bantser had allegedly committed, were recorded before the introduction of the new legislation. According to him, Ihar should not have been tried under the article “replacement of the punishment by a harsher one”. But for some reason he was. The lawyer noticed this discrepancy and filed a complaint. The prosecutor was forced to appeal against the court decision.
Ihar was detained on October 20th, 2020 and charged with hooliganism for dancing in a thong in front of a police officer. He was kept in the Hrodna pre-trial detention center until his conviction: thrown into solitary confinement, sent for forced psychiatric examination to Minsk, placed in a punishment cell. Fighting for his rights and life, Ihar had to go a dry hunger strike for 16 days and ended it only when after the verdict he was released in the courtroom. Ihar Bantser is 41 years old. He lives in Hrodna, is known as a punk rock musician, urban activist, member of the anarchist and anti-fascist movements. He used to be a press secretary of the Union of Poles in Belarus. He is the husband of Anzelika Orechwo, chairwoman of the Supreme Rada of the Union of Poles in Belarus. The couple is raising two small children.
Belarusian human rights activists have recognized Bantser a political prisoner.
