Homel: provincial offenders can spend 80-200 days in remand prisons

On 2 October Andrei Tsianiuta and Dzmitry Shauchenka were released from jail after serving 15 and 10 days of arrest respectively. Dzmitry Tsianiuta was punished for handing out leaflets with invitations to a “silent protest” action, and Andrei Tsianiuta – for leaflets inviting people to take part in the People’s Assembly on 8 October.

During their arrest the young activists found quite an interesting thing: some of the people were serving 80-200 days of arrest at once. The matter is that there are no administrative prisons in Belarusian towns. That’s why those who are sentenced to arrest are not transported to Homel, but are released. However, when the police find a bus, they conduct a raid, trying to catch the offenders (about 20-30 people) and transport them to Homel. By this time, some of the offenders have many arrest terms (up to 200 days).

According to information of Tsianiuta and Shauchenka, at present there are some offenders from the town of Karma, who serve terms varying from 80 to 200 days. The police explain it by saying that there is no money for constructing local detention centers or transporting such people to Homel after each trial.