Former political prisoners to remain under police supervision for 2-8 years

Law-enforcing agencies have placed under police supervision almost all political prisoners released on August 22.

Ihar Alinevich, an activist of anarchist movement from Minsk, told BelaPAN that he had been placed under preventive supervision for 5 years. An analogous measure was used against Babrujsk dweller Yauhen Vaskovich.

It was impossible to reach Artsyom Prakapenka on the phone, however his father said that no control measures had been applied to him.

Another anarchist from Minsk Mikalai Dzyadok has not visited police yet, as he had not been warned during release that he should do so.

An activist from Homel Yury Rubtsou was subjected to preventive supervision for two years, and the same measure of control prescribed for the former presidential candidate, Mikalai Statkevich, for the period of 8 years.

Preventive supervision is a measure of control used for a person who had completed the term, for the period of expiry of conviction, depending on gravity of a crime. A person subjected to supervision is obliged to inform law-enforcing agencies in advance about going to live in a new place, travelling to another place for a term more than a month, andto come to an internal affairs authority when summoned and give explanations concerning one’s way of life.

Preventive supervision could be lifted after half of the term, when a person committed no violations. At the same time, three administrative violations, even the most insignificant ones, could become a reason for a court to place such a person under preventive surveillance, a harsher measure of control.