Russian physicist Ozharovsky cannot have sleeping bag in jail

Andrei Ozharovsky, who was arrested on the day of Medvedev's visit to Belarus and sentenced to ten days in custody, cannot receive a sleeping bag in a parcel.

Rules of a detention facility on Akrestin Street do not forbid  to have sleeping bags, though they are not on the “official” lists of things that can be passed to inmates. It's a decision of jail staff whether to accept a sleeping bag or not.

As Andrei Ozharovsky's friends told charter97.org, they passed him a sleeping bag on the second day of his term, but his lawyer says the inmate has not received it yet.

“Inmates sleep on the so called stage made of boards. Sleeping on bare boards during 10 days is painful and sometimes cold,” Tatyana Novikava, who was detained in Andrei for 5 days, says. “We met special treatment in the detention facility. There searches every day. Sometimes they gave us parcels at 3 a.m. I think it's a form of pressure on inmates,” Novikava said.

We remind Russian nuclear physicist and expert of Bellona international environmental organization Andrei Ozharovsky and his colleague Tatyana Novikava, a coordinator of the Belarusian Anti-Nuclear Campaign, were detained on July 18, when a general contract on construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus was to be signed. An activist of the Belarusian Anti-Nuclear Campaign, head of the Council of the Belarusian Ecological Public Association Ecohome Iryna Sukhiy and coordinator of the group of monitoring at the Centre of Legal Transformation Mikhail Matskevich were also detained on that day.

Sukhiy was fined 15 basic units, Matskevich was given three days in custody. Novikava and Ozharovsky were taken into custody for 5 and 10 days respectively. They were accused of swearing in public.

Ozharovsky, Novikava and Sukhiy were going to visit the Embassy of Russia on July 18 to hand in an appeal to Dzmitry Medvedev against signing the general contract on construction of a  nuclear power plant in Astravets. Experts described a number of problems relating to construction of the nuclear power plant. They raised a question of numerous violations, including violations of international ecological conventions.