Liudmila Kuchura: “The administration of the penitentiary hurried to transfer my husband to prison”

December 30, 2013 prisoner Piatro Kuchura, who was serving a sentence in penal colony No. 15 who disturbed the administration defending his rights, was transferred to the maximum security prson No. 4 in Mahiliou for three years.

As Liudmila Kuchura told the HRC "Viasna", the trial of her husband passed very quickly and without much explanation.

According to her, the lawyer who visited the colony on December 20 to study the case Piatro Kuchura and the penalties received by him, wasn't allowed to do it, as the case was allegedly "for official use only". Of course, the prisoner wasn't allowed to study his case either. After both of them filed applicatioons requesting to familiarize them with the case, the lawyer was informed that the decision would be sent to him by mail.

On December 23 the lawyer received a fax note that the trial would start on December 26. This is a violation, since by law the interested parties are to be informed about it at least five days before trial.

"The administration of the penal colony hurried to transfer my husband to prison”, says Liudmila Kuchura. The trial was held very hastily. The husband's motion for familiarization with the case was denied, he was told that there wasn't a great need for it. The lawyer was just allowed to look through it before the trial. Even when he asked to read an extract from the medical record, he was told that it was confidential. Of course, all this is ridiculous. As a result, the trial was very short."

The judge granted the request of the colony and sentenced Piatro Kuchura to three years in maximum security prison N.4 in Mahiliou.

From this prison Liudmila Kuchura received a letter by which she was informed about the prison rules, according to which she could see her husband once a year and pass him one parcel, weighning two kilograms.

“They created terrible conditions for a person who is disabled by heart disease, the terrible conditions. You know, that with such diseases one needs to be outdoors as much as possible and have a good nutrition. However, now I won't be able to pass my husband any honey or dried fruit, dried apricots and raisins or nuts, which are useful for those who have heart diseases. It turns out that the judge and the prosecutor (though it is a question whether there was a prosecutor at the trial, as there wasn't anyone in the prosecutor's uniform there) deprived him of the right to health, which is guaranteed to all citizens by our Constitution," said the woman.

Liudmila Kuchura believes that the leadership of colony No. 15 wanted to get rid of her husband in any way, even by means of physical destruction. To prove her words, she told about the content of one of the letters from her husband, which wasn't let through by the prison censorship for a while.

" In December, he sent me a letter in which he described how he was being driven in the forbidden zone and constantly threatened. The letter wasn't let out of the colony. They destroyed it and composed an act saying that my husband allegedly insulted me with four-letter words in this letter. Of course, this is nonsence. However, after the arrival of the lawyer, whom the husband informed about this glaring fact despite the presence of the administration during the talk, they had to send his next letter, as the fact was already known anyway."

Piatro Kuchura, who was held in a cell-type facility in penal colony No. 15 at the time, wrote to his wife: "Each time I am lead to the headquarters or to the medical unit by the forbidden band. At 8 p.m. and at 7.30 a.m. in the morning on December 18 one guard startedposing open threats. He said that they were bored of having to lead him here and there all the time, and it would be better if they took him to the forbidden band and shot there with a machine gun. The guard said that If he had to lead me again, they wouldthrow my hat on the barbed wire, then a guard would shoot me with a gun machine, after which they wouldthrow my body over one row of barbed wire, and no one would discriminate on which side I had been before. He said that as a result he would have a rest, everyone would have a promotion and they would get rid of Kuchura, and, as said by Makhankou (S. Makhankou – head of colony No. 15, - ed.) all will be under the law – a prisoner's escape was prevented."

After such a letter Liudmila Kuchura says that there is no guarantee that Belarusian prisoners haven't been killed in such a way.