Political Prisoner Tsimafei Dranchuk Transferred to Minsk Colony :: Charter'97 :: News

An activist of the civil initiative of elections observation “Partnerstva”, Tsimafei Dranchuk, has been transferred from a remand prison of Internal Affairs department of Minsk city executive committee, where Dranchuk had spent recent months, to Minsk colony No.1, where Belarusian political prisoners Mikhail Marynich, Andrei Klimau, Alyaksandr Vasilyeu and other oppositionists had been serving the sentence. The Charter’97 press center was informed about that by the father of the political prisoner Valery Dranchuk.

As we have informed, on August 4 the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk passed a verdict to the four Partnerstva activists. Tsimafei Dranchuk was sentenced to one year of minimum-security correctional labour facility. He was charged with violation of the Article 193 of the Criminal Code (running an illegal organization which had not been registered by the state that “encroaches” on people’s rights). The matter concerned political amendments to the Criminal Code passed in the run-up to the presidential elections.

Tsimafei Dranchuk was placed into an overcrowded cell of a remand prison in Valadarski St. Tsimafei has written in a letter that his sight had failed of late.

It’s not the first case when the health of political prisoners in prisons deteriorates. Lawyers and relatives of the former candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Kazulin are saying that the health of the political prisoner is declining. He has heart and kidney complaints.

In March 2005 political prisoner Mikhail Marynich had a stroke in Vorsha colony. Only thanks to Belarusian and international community and numerous protest rallies Marynich was placed to the republican prison hospital. However, after release it was impossible to repair Marynich’s health.