Bialiatski received third reprimand

The administration made Ales Bialiatski a “malignant violator”, which raises doubts about the use of 3 July amnesty towards him.

On 8 June Ales wrote to an RFE/RL journalist in a letter: “Yesterday I received the third reprimand this year. The first one was issued to me in the quarantine, on 21 March, – for wearing non-uniform shoes. The second was received a day before the meeting with wife, on 16 May, for stay in the sewing workshop without badge, and the third – for sleeping in a section on 2 June before dinner.

As a result, I was deprived of the next long-term meeting, as provided by the Criminal-Executive Code. Since the next month I will be also allowed to spend only 100,000 rubles in the prison shop instead of 500,000. Most probably, though it is too early to speak about it, the amnesty won’t concern me as a “malignant violator”.

The only thing I can add is that my “Undertakings” to abide by the Criminal-Executive Code and obey to the internal regulations haven’t been adopted so far. That’s why, as it is said in the local slang, I am “without papers” now.

Besides, the Criminal-Executive Code provides voluntary joining an amateur talents association. Taking into account this “voluntariness”, I haven’t joined it so far, as I am already a member of many organizations, including the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Union of Belarusian Writers, the Belarusian Language Society and the Belarusian PEN-Center, that’s why the talents association would be too much for me.”

Earlier Ales described pressurization from the side of the prison administration in his letter to his wife, Natallia Pinchuk. There Ales wrote that he was transferred into the category of “malignant violators”.

“It means that quite a hard moral and material situation is being created for him, and the reduction of his financial income deprives him of the opportunity to buy additional foodstuffs. It will influence the state of his health. What concerns his physical state – he doesn’t complain, but sometimes some indirect information witnesses that not everything is alright and his health is getting worse. And all these reprimands put a cross on anyone’s hopes for amnesty,” said Natallia to RFE/RL.

She also states that the situation with the alleged violations of the prison regime by her husband reminds the situation of other political prisoners. On 13 June it became known that Eduard Lobau, who is serving a term (to which he was sentenced on fabricated charges) in the Ivatsevichy colony, was declared a “malignant violator”. In the beginning of the year the same happened to former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich (kept in the Mahiliou prison) and the head of the “Young Front” Zmitser Dashkevich.