News on the topic: torture
26.06.2015 “Viasna” activists join campaign against torture
Activists of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” have joined a campaign against torture, initiated by the Russian NGO “Committee against Torture”.
26.06.2015 Pavel Sapelka: Torture is often a hidden problem in Belarus
In 1997, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 26 June as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. On this day, international and national human rights organizations remind once again that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”
25.06.2015 Mother of inmate who died in jail faces obstacles in access to information
Zhanna Ptsichkina, the mother of Ihar Ptsichkin, who died in jail in 2013, has received another answer from the Prosecutor General’s Office.
23.06.2015 Kuchura case: Mahilioŭ authorities go blind to complaints
In a continuous attempt to hide the fact of torture in the Mahilioŭ-based penal colony No. 15, reported by the wife of prisoner Piotr Kuchura, officials of the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office brazenly distort the facts in their formal replies to her complaints, arguing that there was no criminal incident in the colony at all.
04.06.2015 Investigation into the death of Ihar Ptischkin in jail sent for new trial
Zhana Ptsichkina has received an answer from the Office of Prosecutor General concerning the closure of the criminal case on the fact of death of her son Ihar Ptsichkin in remand prison No. 1 in Minsk.
28.05.2015 Valyantsin Stefanovich: In colony Mikalai Dzyadok subjected to torture
The penitentiary system of Belarus has preserved many elements of totalitarian past.
14.04.2015 Zhana Ptsichkina studied the criminal case concerning the death of her son
The mother of Ihar Ptsichkin, who had died in the remand prison in Valadarski Street, 1 in Minsk back on August 4, 2013, sought the assistance of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”.
02.04.2015 Svetlahorsk investigator refuses to see arbitrariness of the local police
“Who am I complaining to?” - that's the question asked to the regional prosecutor by the mother of Aliaksandr Akulich who died in the pre-trial prison of Svetlahorsk District Police Department. Despite the numerous inspections in this case, the contradictions in the testimonies of the police guards, pointed at by human rights defenders and the court, are ignored by the investigator Viachaslau Petachenka.
01.04.2015 Yury Liashenka challenges actions of medics who detained him while picketing
April 1, Salihorsk civil society activist, wheelchair user Yury Liashenka filed a claim to the Salihorsk District Court. He asks the court to find the actions of the medics who detained him at a picket, took him to hospital contrary to his will and injected him with an unknown substance illegal and violating his right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
25.03.2015 Convict Piotr Kuchura urges Mahiliou Prosecutor to “have the courage”
Piotr Kuchura urges Mahiliou Prosecutor to react to a failure to launch a timely probe into his poisoning in penal colony No. 15, which made it impossible to punish the perpetrators.
20.03.2015 Issue of criminalization of torture is much wider than it is seen by the Belarusian lawmaker
Comments on the National Report to the Universal Periodic Review (second cycle) prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. Issues that had previously been studied during the monitoring of places of detention, which was carried out by the HRC "Viasna" are touched upon in the report.
05.03.2015 Ihar Ptsichkin's mother is prohibited to disclose information of preliminary investigation
The mother of Ihar Ptsichkin who had died in the remand prison in Valadarski Stret August 4, 2013, received a response to her appeal to the Investigation Committee of Belarus, in which she asked to report the results of the preliminary investigation into the causes of the death of her son, issue a certificate indicating the cause of death, as well as to answer the question whether the duty officials of the remand prison No. 1 were dismissed from office for the time of the investigation.
11.02.2015 Forensic experts getting more cautious in case of death in Svetlahorsk detention centre
Forensic expert committee did not once again "assume" that the detainee Aliaksandr Akulich could inflict himself numerous bodily injures, registered during the examination of the corpse.
19.12.2014 Investigative nonsense: Shoes taken off barefooted body
The recent decision on the results of another probe in connection with the death of Aliaksandr Akulich in Svetlahorsk detention center demonstrates unacceptable negligence of investigator Viachaslau Petachenka.
09.12.2014 Overconfident investigator Skavarodkin: “Let him be afraid of me – I am from the Investigative Committee”
In a letter to his relatives a victim of tortures, prisoner Piatro Kuchura has told about his recent conversation with the investigator Skavarodkin. The latter visited the prisoner within the frames of another examination on the fact of his poisoning with bleach in Mahilioupenal colony No. 15.
