Ales Bialiatski: Open letter by political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok reveals the terrible truth

The colony's administration hides behind the "legitimate" internal rules, while psychologically and physically terrorizing prisoners who seek to preserve human dignity.

The head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski commented on his Facebook public page on the appeal published today by political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok.

In his open letter addressed to human rights defenders and “all those for whom the words justice, humanism and human dignity is not an empty phrase”, Mikalai Dziadok describes abuse of political prisoners and him personally, which, according to Ales Bialiatski, are real torture in prison.

"The open letter by political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok reveals the terrible truth about what is going on in Belarusian prisons and jails. The colony's administration hides behind the "legitimate" internal rules, while psychologically and physically terrorizing prisoners who seek to preserve human dignity. Moreover, as it was in the case of Mikalai Dziadok, they face charges under Article 411 of the Criminal Code, and he received an additional year of imprisonment. It is evident that the pressure on political prisoners is specially organized by the Belarusian authorities to extract from them a request for clemency.

We protest and draw attention of the Belarusian society and the international community to torture and arbitrary actions by the authorities used against political prisoners. It should not be tolerated!” said the human rights activist.

Mikalai Dziadok, an activist of the anarchist movement, was sentenced on February 26 to one more year of imprisonment in a penal colony under Article 411 of the Criminal Code. The verdict came just five days before the expiration of his initial sentence. The political prisoner was charged with 16 violations, the main of which was wearing a tracksuit instead of prison uniform. Both Belarusian and international human rights organizations said that they viewed the case as exclusively politically motivated and have repeatedly required an immediate and unconditional release of Mikalai Dziadok.