Interior Ministry Ignores Complaints about Detention Conditions in Smaliavičy

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has rejected an appeal by Leanid Kulakou, an activist of the European Belarus opposition movement, who earlier complained about the conditions of detention in the police department of Smaliavičy.

In late October, the activist received a response from the Ministry’s office of supervisory and executive activities. The officials said that his complaint had been “thoroughly and urgently investigated”, Viasna reports.

“The inspection found that some deficiencies in the setup of the police department were due to objective reasons and were not the result of poor service by the staff,” said the reply.

Leanid Kulakou was not satisfied with the answer and repeatedly wrote to the Interior Ministry.

As a result, he received another response dated November 16, which said that the officials had found “no violations of the law by the officers”. “You received a proper reply and therefore any further correspondence with you will be terminated,” said the letter.

Earlier, a similar complaint was rejected by the District Prosecutor's Office.