After the announcement of the presidential election’s results on 19 December 2010, thousands of people gathered in Minsk to take part in a peaceful, pro-democracy public assembly. Many of them were arrested and taken to the KGB detention facilities. Seven presidential candidates and their key helpers were also captured and charged with the offence of organizing a mass riots, an offence punishable with up to fifteen years imprisonment.
The press has widely reported that the pro-democracy campaigners have suffered human rights abuses, both physical and psychological, while in KGB detention. For instance, they were subjected to torturous treatment, denied proper medical care and refused proper and adequate access to legal advice and assistance. They were also exposed to threats and other psychological pressure. According to the press, there is a serious concern whether the trials, they subsequently faces, are fair and impartial.
According to the media sources, a prominent opposition politician in Belarus, Ales Mikhalevich who was arrested after the elections, gave description at the press conference on 1 March 2011 on how he had been tortured during nine weeks in pre-trial detention in the KGB facility in Minsk. He called the place “concentration camp in the centre of Minsk”. Ales Mikhalevich told the public that the detention centre’s guards repeatedly made him stand outside naked in the cold, used excruciating stress positions during searches, forced him to sleep in a cell where the temperature was very low, kept him in overcrowded cell and applied to him sleep-deprivation methods. The floor in the cell was painted with acetone-based paint, which the prisoners were forced to breathe in. Ales Mikhalevich was also physically tortured by a group of masked men wearing camouflage uniforms and face-masks who, for instance, pulled his handcuffed arms so high that he was hitting the concrete in order to make promise to do everything that State Security officers demand from him. Moreover, he was refused the access to lawyers.
Ales Mikhalevich was charged for inciting mass riots. He was released on 19 February 2011 on the condition that he had agreed to become a KGB agent who was to inform on the activities of the opposition. However, on the press conference Ales Mikhalevich revoked the agreement he had signed and informed about the torturous treatment and conditions in KGB prisons where the opposition activists have been detained. Currently, he is under a risk to be rearrested and subjected to even harsher treatment in the detention facility.
Furthermore, according to media reports, on 2 March 2011 the Belarusian court sentenced three persons participating in the protest action of 19 December 2010 in Minsk that had been charged with participation in mass riot. The court sentenced Alyaksandr Atroshchankau to four years, Zmitser Novik – to three and a half years and Alyaksandr Mauchanau – to three years of imprisonment. Thus, all the pro-democracy activists were sentenced by the court to a long-time deprivation of liberty. Taking into consideration the above-mentioned treatment of political prisoners by Belarusian authorities, there is a serious concern that Alyaksandr Atroshchankau, Zmitser Novik and Alyaksandr Mauchanau would face harsh, torturous conditions and treatment while imprisonment.
In the light of the above and, particularly, of the gravity of reports on basic human rights violations, such as prohibition of torture or the right to fair trial, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights highlighted in it’s appeal that the pressure coming from a variety of international sources may significantly affect the situation of the persons.
Therefore, the Foundation requested to take steps to grant the political prisoners in Belarus appropriate human rights’ protection standards, such as the appeal to the Belarusian authorities and the country visit to Belarus.
