Ihar Pastnou applies to prosecutor's office
The repressed psychiatrist wrote an
appeal to the prosecutor's office and passed it to his trustee
Siarhei Ryzhou so that the latter could filed it there. At present
Mr. Ryzhou is prohibited to meet with Mr. Pastnou who is kept in the
Vitsebsk regional center of Psychiatry and Narcology after uploading
several critical video addresses on the web.
Siarhei Ryzhou
talked to Ihar Pastnou in the presence of Natallia Vasilyeva, the
head of the 2nd locked ward where he is kept. Mr. Ryzhou states that
she reacted very nervously when Pastnou told him about the methods of
the forced psychiatric treatment:
"Ihar Pastnou is a
psychiatrist, he graduated from the Vitsebsk Medical Institute with
honors. He is conscious which consequences the forced use of
neuroleptics can have, when they are prescribed to sane people. He
complains that he feels giddy and cannot walk after treatment with
nevleptyl. He complained the medics about such reaction, but they
started to give him this drug forcedly as a result: a male nurse
clipped his nose so that he couldn't breathe and then had to swallow
the medicine."
Siarhei Ryzhou recorded how Pastnou
described being forcibly injected with “depress”:
“I
refused from nevleptyl and “depress” in injections was prescribed
to me instead of it. I protested by all means, but I cannot fight
with them. I just lay on the bed, the nurses turned me around as a
bag, took off my pants... Of course, I felt anguish! I felt even
worse as I didn't know what I was injected with. Once I was told that
“depress” in injections was coming to an end and I could be given
it in capsules or another drug would be prescribed to me. However, I
am a psychiatrist myself and know that it can be either
achlorpromazine or haloperidol, both of which can have serious side
effects, up to disability. Their effects on healthy people haven't
been studied well enough, and they can be very complicated, up to
disability. I have neither hallucinations, nor delusions, but such
medicines are prescribed to me... And I am feeling worse and
worse."
Mr. Pastnou wrote in his complaint about the
methods of the medical treatment and how he got to the psychiatric
hospital. He writes that he had not been registered for any mental
illness and nobody proposed him a medical examination. However, on 15
August the chief physician Alena Martynava held a medical council,
without inviting Mr. Pastnou, and decided to direct him to a forced
medical examination. The decision of the commission was submitted to
the city prosecutor's office and a permission was received for it
there. On 16 August Mr. Pastnou came to work, to the narcological
department of the hospital and was called to another room, allegedly
for a piece of advice. There he was shown the ruling of the
prosecutor's office and taken to the 2nd closed closed department,
limiting him in communication and phone calls. He was allegedly
examined for five days, and on 21 August a trial over him took place.
“Of course, on 16 August, when I was put there, my blood
pressure went up because of the stress. However, on 21 August I was
in a good state and mood and was going to the court, but wasn't taken
there as I allegedly could hurt myself or someone else. although I
was in a completely adequate condition, Judge Tatsiana Dzehtsiarova
sentenced me to forced medical treatment, which was started
immediately, though according to the law I had some time to file an
appeal and the court decision has not yet entered into force."
Ihar
Pastnou believes that his rights were violated and his lawyer filed
an appeal against the court verdict. Mr. Pastnou found it necessary
to emphasize that he wasn't proposed a voluntary medical examination
and there were no reasons for it as he was mentally sane. He was also
outraged that his colleagues held a medical council without
informing him about it.
Since 23 August he was kept not in a
separate ward, but together with other patients, who had been just
taken to the hospital and hadn't been diagnosed yet. Among them there
were people with evident disabilities, says Siarhei Ryzhou who
considers it as an additional element of pressure on Pastnou.
He
is sure that all refusals from the forced treatment are properly
documented in his medical record. However, neither he, nor his proxy
Siarhei Ryzhou are allowed to look at it.
Ihar Pastnou is
still kept in isolation, his cell phone is kept by the head of the
department and he is not called to the stationary phone of the
hospital, on which patients are allowed to speak with their
relatives. Before the visit of Siarhei Ryzhou he didn't know that his
situation was well-known to his compatriots and human rights
defenders, including international ones. He was very glad to find out
that “Amnesty International” stated its readiness to consider him
a prisoner of conscience.