Prisoners of prison on Akrestin Street go on hunger strike

Alyaksandr Makayeu, one of the entrepreneurs’ leaders was sentenced to 15 days of arrest by the court of the Maskouski district of Minsk. The prisoner has gone on hunger strike in protest.

Makayeu was detained in the morning on 12 January, when he just left the building of the Minsk executive committee, where he had a meeting with deputy head of the city internal affairs department Alyaksandr Naidzenka. The theme of the meeting was conditions, in which prisoners having been detained on 10 January, were kept on Akrestin Street.

“Yesterday evening I spoke with Alyaksandr Naidzenka on telephone. I said the chief of the special prison facility on Akrestin Street doesn’t allow to pass the arrested people not only food, but even warm cloths, and thus violates national and international laws, because it can’t be named other than torture by cold, when temperature in cell is 10-12 °C. Naidzenka offered to meet today in the morning, and we had a meeting at 10am. He said he would phone to the administration of the prison after our meeting and assured me it would be possible to pass sleeping bags and some food even today. But when I left the building of the Minsk city executive committee, a militia car drove up to me and I was detained,” Alyaksandr Makayeu said to the Charter’97 press center just after his detention.

The leader of entrepreneurs was guarded to the internal affairs department of the Maskouski district, where he was accused of “minor hooliganism” and a report against him was drawn up.

It should be reminded that Alyaksandr Makayeu was serving his administrative arrest on Akrestin Street, when the protest rally of entrepreneurs took place on 10 December.

On 10 January he was detained on a bus stop in the city district Sukharava together with his minor son. But then he just spent two hours in the internal affairs department of Frunzenski district and was put under house arrest. In Makayeu’s view, only presence of the child saved him from arrest that time.

It is known that 6 participants of the protest rally of entrepreneurs in the special prison facility on Akrestin Street have gone on hunger strike. They are Alyaksandra Lyndava, Ihar Zhabarouski, Yan Mikhailau, Alyaksandr Barazenka, Raman Bagdanovich and Paval Vinagradau.