News from Belarusian prisons, February 2022

Mikita Jemialjanau again was placed to a punishment isolation cell on 18 January. His term there was prolonged again and again, as prison administration invented new reasons to isolate him. For instance, Mikita refuses to clean a courtyard where inmates walk. Unlike other inmates, Mikita does not litter in a courtyard, so he sees no reason why he has to clean it. He was sentenced to cumulative 46 days of isolation. On 3 February Mikita started a ‘dry’ hunger strike to protest humiliating treatment by prison administration. 10 days later he started to drink water, as his state became critical.
On 22 February Mikita was visited by a deputy head of Mahilioŭ region penitentiary administration who reassured Емельянова that all the issues he had raised will be dealt with.
On 23 February Mikita stopped his hunger strike and started to eat. He passed special thanks to those who submitted appeals on his behalf to various state offices. Mikita felt this solidarity.

On 11 February there was a second day of Mikita Jemialjanau’s trial (on charges of a violation of prison regime). Maximum penalty is an additional imprisonment for two years. Proceedings lasted only half an hour; one witness of the prosecution was interrogated. The anarchist had not been brought to the court. The judge have read documents from the file, according to which Mikita refused to provide statements and to sign legal documents related to procedures.
On 16 February another session of trial should have happened, but the judge was refused entry to the penal facility because of high bodily temperature.

Dzmitryj Dubouski was transferred to SIZO-2 in Viciebsk (vul. Haharyna 2, Viciebsk, 210026), and Ihar Alinievich was transferred to SIZO-3 in Homiel. The address: vul. Knižnaja 1А, SIZO-3, Homiel, 246003.

On 12 February Mikola Dziadok was transferred from prison nr. 4 in Mahilioŭ to a penal colony IK-9 in Horki. Immediately upon arrival to IK-9 Mikola was placed to a punishment isolation cell for 7 days, and then deprived of a protracted meeting with a relative. Moreover, his limit on acquiring basic staples from a prison kiosk was lowered from 6 to 2 ‘basic quantities’ (from 192 to 64 Belarusian roubles) a month. He was also deprived of letters – prison censorship bans all letters arriving.
Inspite of all this, Mikola is in good mood and enjoys fresh air.
His new address:
213410, Horki, vul. Dabraliubava 16.

On 18 and 19 February an exhibition of Belarusian and Russian underground artists (Lioks Harotny, Uladzik Bochan, Niemastak, Photonegativki, Karikaturama, Atmografika, Poliakowa, Daria M.) took place in Warsaw. Significant place at the exhibition was occupied by the works of art dedicated to anarchist political prisoners in Belarus.

One of anarchists detained in SIZO-1 in Minsk communicated that when the war in Ukraine started, cops started to intimidate political prisoners with threats of death sentences by court martial. But the anarchist discounts rumours spread by cops and carefully re-evaluates the ‘news’ he is able to get from the official Belarusian television.

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