Picks of the week

Mikhail Zhamchuzhny, the only person qualified as a political prisoner by the country’s human rights community, continues to serve multiple penalties in a punishment cell in the Horki-based penal colony. According to the prisoner’s lawyer, in October alone, he has been awarded at least three consecutive penalties for rejecting his transfer to a prison unit, where he says he has been subjected to humiliation and bullying.

Between October 2017 and October 2018, Zhamchuzhny served 270 days of punishment for violating prison rules.

Mikhail Zhamchuzhny in court

Dzianis Mandzik, chairman of the BPF’s youth branch, says he was ill-treated by the police after he was detained together with two associates for protesting outside the Defense Ministry’s headquarters on October 16.

Mandzik was handcuffed to other people arrested on the same day and in this way brought to the court building to stand trial on administrative charges. The activist told about the incident in a story for Viasna’s new project exposing police-related abuses in Belarus.

Dzianis Mandzik, chairman of the BPF’s youth branch

Hanna Krasulina, the Russian-born press office chief for the opposition United Civic Party, said at a press conference on November 14 that she was ordered to leave Belarus by November 30. According to the Interior Ministry, the scheduled deportation stems from three minor violations the activist committed since 2016, including one episode of fare dodging in March 2018.

In a similar case in 2015, human rights defender Alena Tankachova was deported from Belarus for three years. The decision was based on three counts of speeding.

UCP press secretary Hanna Krasulina (center) during a press conference on November 14, 2018. Photo: svaboda.org