Alinevich threatened to be transferred from correctional facility to prison

• 17.10.2014, 12:19

The authorities of Vitba-3 correctional facility threatened the political prisoner to transfer him to a cell-type unit.

“I planned to visit him at the end of September, but a correctional officer called me two days before the meeting and said the visit would be postponed, because Ihar had been thrown into a punishment cell for ten days,” Ihar's mother Valiantsina told RFE/RL. “We learnt ten days later that the first term was followed by two more terms.”

What did the political prisoner do to be punished like that? Ihar Alinevich's parents decided to ask the prison staff. It turned out that Ihar refused to clean toilets, because it would have made his status among inmates lower. He was given the same order ten days later, but he again refused to do it.

“The third sanction was issued because prison officers allegedly heard him speaking to an inmate in the neighbouring cell during his 30-day solitary term. But it is possible that our son was just reading poems loudly. What else can one do in solitary confinement if reading and writing are prohibited?”

Ihar Alinevich's father learnt from the authorities of the correctional facility that in case of further violations Ihar can be transferred to a cell-type unit and then to a closed prison.

Former political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich, who had been transferred from a correctional facility in Ivatsevichy to a closed prison in Hrodna during his term, comments on the situation:

“They probably have an order to give Alinevich the status of a persistent violator of prison rules and sentence him to stricter confinement conditions under article 411.”

The political prisoner will remain in the punishment cell until 20 October.