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Vasily Parfyankou denied right to communicate and receive parcels

Vasily Parfyankou denied right to communicate and receive parcels

An activist Volha Mikalajchyk tried to get permission for a meeting with a political prisoner Vasil Parfyankou in the penal colony Horki-9.

She told to the editorial office of charter97.org about her impressions after this visit and how the convicted activist feels in the most dreadful penal colony of the country.

— Was it easy to insist on a meeting with Vasily Parfyankou?

Volha Bezbarodkina, a lawyer, had been pushing for permission to visit our friend for two months and with great difficulty. We were naïve to hope that we should go there anyway, and maybe we would collect a parcel of 30 kilograms to him, so she would not have to carry it around alone. Thank God, Levanid Smovzh joined us, and we all went to Horki-9 colony. It is far away, 275 kilometres from Minsk.

When we arrived, we faced a legal barbarity again. First of all, the entire atmosphere was very unpleasant, it is a kind of GULAG, Soviet-style barracks, terrible walls, prison wardens “made in 1937” walk around with arms in their hands. You know, I have created many films dedicated to Belarusian detention facilities, and I saw prisons in Sweden, Norway, Germany. And that place was oppressive because of its spirit of Stalinism. This made me uneasy.

The lawyer had to run to the administration building several times, which is far from the entrance to the penal colony, to find the governor. He was absent all the time, and finally his assistant with a grey face, about 35, came to us. He could be confused with a prisoner. But these wardens would not be released ever. They are absolutely uninteresting people, with no intelligence or liveliness in their eyes. He told me I cannot visit Vasily: it is forbidden for “war brides”. That means, he already knew I was not a relative, but a “war bride”, as the lawyer insistently asked for me.

— Have they accepted your parcel?

— No, it was not allowed to pass things for him. It means that I spent there 3 hours and returned home. And just one thing has been done, Vasily could feel good realizing that Leanid and I were there waiting outside. It is very important for a person behind the bars.

— The lawyer saw Vasily. What did she told about him after that visit?

— When the lawyer saw him, she was impressed by his extreme meagerness, and his complexion was “delicately green”. It is natural when a person does not see sun, does not eat vitamins and micronutrients… He is deprived of a right to receive parcels. He has a right to buy something for Br 300,000 a month (about $30), though he has Br 6 mln in his account – Belarusians of good will transferred money for him. But he cannot buy something with this money, and the allowed sum is purely for cigarettes, as Vasily smokes. He is not able to afford a chocolate bar, an onion bulb, an apple, can you imagine this? He is kept in an isolation cell in a closed prison. He has only a radio, there is no TV-set. His only connection to real world since December has been newspapers, letters and magazines sent by us. Such situation could only be read about in historical novels about prisoners. And now it’s the 21st century, and moreover, he is not a prisoner, he is imprisoned for nothing, for his dynamic political activities amid such an absurd situation. It’s terrible.

— Do you get letters from him?

— Yes, today I have finally received a letter from him, after I sent a telegram with the text: “How are you, please respond, are you alive and well?” In his letter he expressed gratitude for our coming, he told he received the telegram, and he was happy people are waiting for him outside the prison walls. Just imagine how important it is for a person when he understands that he would be welcomed after release, he would be given a front-end support, so that he would be able to adapt and would be settled in. He receives letters. Two or three days ago I sent magazines he likes to him, and I know that other people had sent books, newspapers and magazines to him. I hope he will receive all that.

— What are your emotions about Horki-9 colony and its staff?

— Frankly speaking, when these “vertukhais” (prison guards) returned after a lunch in their luxury cars, while the lawyer had been waiting outside the gates for 2 hours to get access to communicate with the prisoner – it was simply outrageous! And that happened while she had permission for the visit. And they started arriving. It made me sick to look at it. You know, prisoners in Swedish, Norwegian prisons play football and basketball together with wardens, they build phone boxes, one can have as many meetings as one wants, no matter what your crimes are – as you had been deprived of liberty for that, that’s enough. And it’s a kind of savagery! All these prison workers are awfully unlikeable. They are officers, judging by their uniform, but they are not athletic, they have beer bellies, with emptiness in their eyes. They look at you as if you owe them something, as if you are the next to enter the gates and stay there. As if it was their only dream.

— They are sure to be given some “harmful exposure allowance” both by the state and by prisoners…

— There are 45,000 prisoners in Belarus per 9 mln of population. Sweden has the same population, but 5,000 prisoners. But our society is not as criminalized as in Russia! How come we have so many convicts? But the system of corruption is very elaborate there, it’s simply a city within the city! Statkevich wrote that he would “banquet” on anchovies’ heads on his birthday, August 12. But the state allocates money for food there as required. The state spends about 200$ a month per one person. And where is money? I am sure this system is built on bribes. If you pay more, you can be transferred to a corrective labour facility, and so on. That does not concern political prisoners, but I know for sure such things exist. And it’s clear that it is not advantageous for the authorities to decrease the number of prisoners, as it is simply a Klondike for them.

— Do you regret that you were not able to see Vasily, and even pass a parcel for him?

— The only thing was encouraging, Vasily became happier after seeing at least one human face, his lawyer, except prisoners and guards. And he knew we were outside the gates. And he knows we are waiting for him, we shall welcome him after release. It’s important. So I am very glad we went there. But in general the impression is unpleasant. Besides that we live like in a GULAG in Belarus, it’s a real GULAG there. As if I visited the year 1937, and felt no one of us is immune to it.

— Are all meetings banned for him?

— As far as I know, only close relatives can visit him (mother, father and sister). But they could not go there because of their health conditions. His common law wife with a child left for Lviv. And others cannot go there, and their parcels are not allowed to be passed.

— Zmitser Dashkevich served a tern there earlier, and he said that this penal colony is the most awful one in the country. How is Vasily getting by, does he write about his health?

— When Dashkevich “disappeared” for 3 months once, and even a lawyer was not allowed to communicate with him, we and the Young Front went there to picket near the colony. Then all members of the Young Front were closed in Horki for two weeks, and I had a journalist’s licence of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, and parents of activists were released as well. But then we thought he had been murdered somewhere, and this information was concealed from us.

Thank God, Vasily gets along. In the today’s letter he writes his health is more or less alright: he is doing exercises and prays a lot. As he told to the lawyer, though porridge and mashed potatoes there are grey and horrible, still it’s food, they do not allow him to die of hunger. Teeth are naturally a problem in the penal colony. One cannot have teeth attended to there. He is young, aged 30, and it supports him, he has not lost his natural health yet.

We remind that Vasily Parfyankou was arrested for participation in a demonstration protesting against the rigged results of the presidential election in 2010. After a while after his release he was imprisoned again on charges related to violation of the rules of preventive supervision. The oppositional activist was released in February 2013.

On September 4 the court of Pershamajski district of Minsk in absence of Vasily ruled to send the former political prisoner Vasily Parfyankou to a Medical-Labour Centre. By doing that the court violated Article 393-9 Part 3 of the Civil Procedure Code of Belarus. It is written there: “Applications for sending a citizen to a medical labour centre are considered within 10 days after the application was received by the court, with obligatory participation of a representative of law-enforcing agencies, prosecutor, and the citizen.” And Part 6 of the Article reads: “In case the citizen refuses to attend the court, the appearance of the citizen could be compelled.”

Human rights activists view the practice of compulsory isolation of citizens to medical-labour centres outside the procedure of a criminal process as a violation of human rights.

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