Volha Bandarenka: “In some “Valadarka” cells the heat is higher than 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit)”

Political prisoners kept in the Ministry of Internal Affairs Detention Center in Valadarski Street (commonly referred as “Valadarka”) are applying for their faster transfer to state penitentiaries.

On June 6 attorneys Vladimir Sazanchuk and Tatsiyana Stankevich who are defending presidential candidates Dzmitry Uss and Mikalai Statkevich filed the sentence appeals in Minsk City Court. Vladimir Sazanchuk explained the defense stand to “Radio Freedom”:

“The sentence, as we see it, is unlawful. You were at the trial and saw that there is no evidence that my client had staged the activities in question. And regarding those activities – I dare say they fall short of being labeled as mass riots”.

Vladimir Sazanchuk wouldn’t dare assume when the appeal is going to be processed. According to the attorney’s words it might take more than a month.

Uss’s lawyer confirmed that in the cell where Uss is kept there are six people total and it is very hot there now.

Marina Adamovich, the wife of presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich, believes that unbearable conditions in “Volodarka” made him to apply for a faster transfer to a penitentiary without waiting for the results of the appeal:

“Most likely he applied for the transfer because of the detention conditions. It’s very hot there. And in general, he must be hungry for a breath of fresh air, air of freedom”.

On June 6 Volha Bandarenka, the wife of “European Belarus” coordinator Zmitser Bandarenka, brought to “Volodarka” a fan for her husband. “Fortunately”, as Volha says, the jail administration accepted the fan. Standing in line with political prisoners family members with parcels to their dearest Volha Bandarenka had heard that on hot days the temperature in some cells of the Detention Center reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Human rights activist Anastasiya Loika has been monitoring Belarusian jail and prison conditions for a long time. Loika explaines the willingness of many “Volodarka” inmates for harsh deportation to penitentiaries, although their appeals haven’t been examined yet, by extremely poor conditions in that jail especially during heat season:

“Because it’s overpopulated, and when it’s hot it’s impossible to stay there. That’s why people are eager to leave for their serving sentence prisons where conditions are a bit better, even before their appeals have been considered”.

Artsyom Hrybkou, given a four-year sentence for the Square events participation, applied for a deportation and might be deported from “Volodarka” to Bobruisk state penitentiary IK-2 one of these days.. Artsyom wrote about that in a recent letter to his girlfriend Svetlana Yuronak. Recently Svetlana had sought to visit Artsyom in Volodarka, but judge Lyudmila Hrachova from Leninskiy Court turned her request down.

“I went to the court, but the judge declined my request for a visit. She said that Hrybkou had enough people to visit him. I asked her to let me see him one last time before the deportation, but she retorted that we had seen each other at the trial and that was enough”.

According to Svetlana Yuronak, even before the June heat her boyfriend Artsyom Hrybkou had been writing to her that it was very hot in his cell and asking her to bring him a fan, but jail administration hadn’t accepted a fan for Artsyom from Svetlana.