Yury Rubtsou: Lukashenka surpassed his teacher

Homel dweller serving his sentence in an open type institution is forced to work on duty.

A political prisoner Yury Rubtsou is currently serving his term in an open type institution No. 7 in the village Kuplin, Pruzhany district. He has not been found work yet, but forced to work on duty. He told charter97.org.

— Recently you said that if you did not get a job offer with $500 salary, you would starve. Isn't there the job yet?

Yes, I still have no job with a decent salary, which the Constitution specifies. Meanwhile, I'm forced to work for the miserable wages in the area, and in addition I have to be on duty at the prison. I cannot name it other words. Nobody is allowed going out. But the most surprising fact is that even Hitler didn't charge for dormitory. Lukashenka surpassed his teacher, having introduced the charge for prison. If a person does not pay, he is not allowed anywhere, neither out nor at home. All Belarus is a big concentration camp. When you are detained by police and require a lawyer then you are drawn up a protocol for refusal to testify. All the same: the requirement for a decent salary perceived to be a refusal to work, and you are appointed as a person on duty in prison. These are coercive measures but not a voluntary work. This is the way the power is base on.

— What are your relationships? Do they put pressure on you?

–There is no explicit pressure on me, but the local warders keep people in the room and do not let out anywhere, although the people must cook themselves. The schedule says: breakfast from 7 to 7:30 am, it's not enough to cook anything but they don't care. This schedule is on paper only; it is not based on the real situation in the prison. It turns out, people may not cook and no one is going to feed them. Thus, the collective puts pressure on me.

–In other words, do the authorities do everything to make your life here worse?

But it happens not only in here: I'm sure such things occur in almost every prison. They are made to show that the situation may be even worse. The regime does not want to make things better, it tends to scare people. But everybody keeps silence.

It should be reminded that on October 6, 2014 the judge of the Central District Court in Minsk Natallia Vaitsekhovich announced the sentence - two and a half years of imprisonment in an open type institution. He got the amnesty, mitigated term of punishment on one year. Human rights activists have noticed that the trial was held with numerous violations, and Rubtsou's political activity was the real reason for the prosecution. After bringing up the sentence, Viasna Human Rights Center recognized Yury Rubtsou as a political prisoner.