News on the topic: penitentiary system
20.11.2020 Overcrowded and violent: what awaits Belarusian protesters in prison
Thousands of people have been detained in Belarus' pro-democracy protesters - and hundreds are facing charges. The prison system that will take them is largely unreformed and has its roots in the Soviet system.
08.05.2020 UN experts urge Belarus to release children and young people jailed for drug offences amid COVID-19 crisis
The soaring number of COVID-19 cases in Belarus should compel the Government to immediately release children and young people imprisoned for drug-related offences, UN human rights experts said on May 7.
14.03.2018 Authorities block access to political prisoners
The administration of penal colony No. 9 in Horki, Mahilioŭ region, has not allowed representatives of the regional Public Monitoring Commission to meet with political prisoner Mikhail Zhamchuzhny, who is currently held in the facility, mspring.online said.
25.09.2017 Bialiatski calls for respect for fundamental rights and freedoms of political prisoner Zhamchuzhny
Ales Bialiatski, head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna", has written to the Interior Ministry’s Department of Corrections urging to take immediate measures to ensure that political prisoner Mikhail Zhamchuzhny is held in conditions, which would guarantee his personal security and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.
31.05.2017 Analytical review of detention conditions and treatement of persons convicted of involvement in peaceful protests in March 2017
The peaceful demonstrators sentenced to administrative detention in Minsk were held in conditions that are contrary to the state’s obligations enshrined in the Constitution and international treaties. Such conditions of detention are a form of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
16.05.2017 Interior Ministry disputes moral suffering in prison death case
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has filed a cassation appeal to the Minsk City Court to challenge an earlier verdict by the Zavodski District Court, which ruled on March 23 that the mother and sister of Ihar Ptsichkin, inmate of Minsk prison No. 1 who died back in August 2013, should receive a total of BYN 30,000 in emotional distress damages.
22.03.2017 Prison monitoring report: “We cannot help everyone, but manage to highlight violations in prisons”
The Human Rights Center "Viasna" presented yesterday its annual report on the results of monitoring places of detention in Belarus.
24.01.2017 More deaths in prison: who is to blame?
An inmate has died in penal colony No. 13 in the northern town of Hlybokaje, according to the Belarusian Documentation Center. On January 4, Valiantsin Pishchalau, 30, died in an ambulance that was called to take the patient to the hospital. According to the penitentiary’s chief, the prisoner died of “acute cardiovascular failure.”
14.12.2016 Prison doctors face charges over fatal incident in Žodzina jail
The Žodzina city department of the Investigative Committee has opened a criminal investigation into the death of Ihar Barbashynski, an inmate of local jail, in September 2016. A notification received by the victim’s mother says that the case was opened under Part 2 of Article 162 of the Criminal Code (improper performance of professional duties by a healthcare practitioner, which negligently caused the death of a patient).
21.10.2016 Doctor sentenced to three years over jail death
The Court of Maskoŭski district of Minsk has sentenced Aliaksandr Krylou, employee of a jail hospital in Minsk, to three years of imprisonment in a penal settlement, putting an end to the criminal investigation into the death of Ihar Ptsichkin.
20.10.2016 Authorities to investigate death in Žodzina jail
The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the death of Aleh Bahdanau, an inmate of Žodzina jail No. 8, on 29 January 2016.
20.09.2016 Colony Hides Information on Suicides
The Human Rights Center Viasna requested confirmation or refutation from Navasady colony (Barysau district) about alleged four suicides and two attempts of suicide there. The reply that came from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Department of Execution of Sentences, was not satisfactory, so Viasna is filing a request to the prosecutor’s office.
17.08.2016 Mikhail Zhamchuzhny appeals sentence to Supreme Court
On August 1, political prisoner Mikhail Zhamchuzhny sent to the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court a supervisory appeal against the 6.5-year sentences he is serving in prison outside Barysaŭ, according to a letter received by the Human Rights Center "Viasna".
05.08.2016 Effective complaint? Unavailable for prisoners
In Belarus, prisoners do not believe in the effectiveness of complaints against the prison authorities. This lack of confidence is reinforced by legislative prerequisites that are analyzed by Pavel Sapelka, expert on penitentiary law. He also describes possible measures that could change the situation.
22.07.2016 Viasna calls to end harassment of Andrei Bandarenka and Mikhail Zhamchuzhny in prison
Ales Bialiatski, chairman of the Human Rights Center "Viasna", has sent a petition to the Minister of the Interior and the Prosecutor General, urging the officials to put an end to the harassment of human rights defenders Andrei Bandarenka and Mikhail Zhamchuzhny currently serving their sentences in Mahilioŭ and Navasady.
