Dzmitry Halko: There were lice in detention centre

A journalist thinks he was arrested for his article about detentions at the Chernobyl Way rally.

Dzmitry Halko spoke to charter97.org about 10 days he had spent in a detention centre in Akrestin Street.

“Many politically active people think short-term detentions are normal. Statkevich was sentenced to 6 years, Alinevich got 8 years in prison, but you have only 10 days. It is lawlessness. In fact, it is a crime. It doesn't matter that I was jailed only for 10 days. It will never end unless we stop considering it normal. We cannot forgive it,” the journalist is confident.

He noted he spent the last four days in a cell for two inmates.

“It is a cell for two inmates with five steps in length and two and a half steps in width. I changed three cells. We had a problem of lice brought by a homeless man. He was moved to another cell after my complaint, but his mattress remained. The prison staff do not care about cleaning and sanitation,” the blogger says.

Dzmitry Halko stressed riot policemen confirmed they had had an order to detain him.

“I was arrested on purpose. One may think it is senseless to jail a journalist. The matter is that I wrote an article about the brutal detention and trial of Ihar Trukhanovich and a woman who had injured a policeman with a bucket after the Chernobyl Way rally. I don't see other reasons. Aliaksandr Yarashevich was detained accidentally, because they didn't want him to be a witness at my trial. As he had earlier been thrown into custody for the Chernobyl Way rally, he was declared a repeat offender and given 12 days,” the journalist said.