Rynkevich: “Regime’s actions against Alyaksandr Kazulin illegal”

“Actions towards Alyaksandr Kazulin are not anti-human, but also illegal,” told the former lawyer of the imprisoned politician Ihar Rynkevich in an interview to BelaPAN commenting ion the latest statements of the administration of “Vitsba-3” colony.

As we have informed, on February 25 in the morning the chief of the colony Vital Ahnistsikau told to the representative of he Belarusian Helsinki Committee in Vitsebsk region Pavel Lyavinau that he was preparing a denial to the request of A. Kazulin to attend funeral of his wife. The decision had been motivated by the fact that Kazulin had four disciplinary penalties and considering the personality of the convict he cannot be allowed to leave and attend the funeral of his wife.

“I’m glad to hear that after two days Ahnistsikau admitted that the key role in making decision on granting a short leave to Kazulin belongs to him. Earlier he stated that the decision should be made by the penal jurisdiction department of the Interior Ministry of Belarus,” Ihar Rynkevich reminded.

“As for the four disciplinary penalties, there were three of them quite recently. The two of them have been received by Kazulin for lying on a bed before bed-time (It should be noted that Kazulin is a person who hasn’t restored his health yet after a 53-day hunger strike on political grounds). An unexpected another penalty means that pressure is being applied on Kazulin inside the colony,” Ihar Rynkevich believes.

The lawyer has also commented the words of the head of Vitsebsk regional prosecutor’s office department of supervision over execution of judgment Yury Ramanouski. In an interview to Intefax-Zapad on February 25 he stated that Kazulin hadn’t written an application with a request to release him from the penal colony for a funeral of his wife.

“According to the law, civil servants (in these case representatives of the colony administration) should explain the convict what he should do in this or that situation. An application with a request to allow Kazulin to attend the funeral of his wife had been received from his relatives. And if it is necessary to receive a statement from himself too, he had been explained that, and not rub hands gleefully because the prisoner didn’t know some procedural details,” Rynkevich said.

He stated that relatives and colleagues of A. Kazulin are to take an appeal from “illegal actions of the colony administration”.