Mother of political prisoner Dziadok asks Interior Ministry to stop haunting her son

Valiantsina Dziadok wrote an open letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus.

She expresses her serious concern about the fate of her son, the pressure on whom in prison has been increased drastically in the recent time. She has told human rights defenders of the Human Rights Centre Viasna about it.

The mother of Mikalai Dziadok asks the responsible officials of the MIA to report who and for what reasons has organised the transfers of Mikalai Dziadok between various prisons and correctional facilities, as well as about who has brought a new criminal case, for alleged violations of the established form of clothing, (art.411 of the Criminal Code, willful disobedience to the correctional institution administration) against him. The preliminary investigation into the case ended yesterday. Mikalai and his lawyer studied the case materials. It's worth noting that the accusations are based solely on the testimonies of prison officials, ignoring the testimonies of other prisoners. The mother also reports that in a short period of time Mikalai Dziadok has been transferred from cell to cell four times due to conflicts and provocations. As a result, the political prisoner applied to the prison administration asking for solitary confinement. The four years Mikalai Dziadok has spent in remand prisons, correctional facilities and prisons aggravated his state of health. His mother draws the attention of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to this and other facts.

“I. Dziadok Valiantsina, the mother of a political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok, kept in prison No. 4 in Mahiliou, have received a response to my appeal, an inspection on which was conducted by the first deputy head of the Corrections Department of the MIA in the Mahiliou region Talkachou Yu. V. I inform you that I haven't received adequate answers to any of the raised questions. There are no answers. The main answer in the response is “Your son has no claims”. Maybe, my son doesn't have them for the reasons which you should know well enough, but I do have claims. I acquainted with the functions of the Corrections Department of the MIA at its website. This agency must be absolutely worthless, if for more than four years of exhausting imprisonment it has turned my son into a "malignant offender" and a "person prone to hostage-taking". One should have worked very hard to achieve it! You live at the expense of the society, which pays the taxes, but this agency stubbornly doesn't implement its functions. Thanks to this institution, during these years my son has been to several penitentiary institutions: the detention center in Akrestsin Street, the prison in Valadarski Street in Minsk, the prison in Zhodzina, the National Hospital of Internal Affairs, the colony №15 in Mahiliou, the colony No. 17 in Shklou and their medical departments, as his health lives much to be desired. And what do these transfers mean for ones health! My son has been kept in prison No. 4 for more than a year already, and in my opinion this is a pure genocide. Now I fear for his health and life, as the pressure on him has increased. In a short time he has been transferred from one cell to another due to conflicts in the cells. My son has never been a conflict person and has been able to find a common ground with people everywhere. We still keep receiving letters from the people with whom he has been serving his term, and communicate with their relatives. Other political prisoners, with whom he has been serving his term, Statkevich, Bandarenka, Kirkevich and many others, also have the best impressions about him. I have only one conclusion – the pressure is exerted on him with the aim to suppress his individuality. Everyone understands what such pressure, God forbid, can lead to. For this agency political prisoners are enemies. Meanwhile, real criminals and criminality are not a problem, they are “socially close” to the authorities, as one “great politician” said.

Many political prisoners and human rights activists loudly declare the increased pressure on the political prisoners. Why don't you hear? Do you believe that responsibility for what you have committed will pass you by? Human honor and dignity are humiliated in these institutions. Sometimes prisoners are kept in inhumane conditions. Inmates are often used to exert pressure on political prisoners. Everyone knows about the widespread use of the so-called “status” relations between prisoners by the administrations of the Belarusian penitentiary institutions as an instrument of pressure on political prisoners. This topic requires separate inspections. Now my son is accused of violating the dress code. Shall he receive a new prison term for it?! Even the Supreme Court of the SSSR pointed out that the violation of dress code can not be the basis for criminal proceedings for disobedience to the administration or violation of the regime of penalty. What if one suddenly comes into any penitentiary institution and checks how many prisoners wear the uniform as required by the rules? The arbitrary approach to political prisoners is evident. On his release from the penal colony in Horki Vasil Parfiankou gave a press-conference at which he highlighted the details related to political prisoners, and in particular, the search for dust, quibbles to the clothes and abuse of political prisoners including threats. My son has filed an appeal to the Corrections Department of the MIA concerning the labor and industrial relations in the colony, the non-observance of the rules of labor protection and industrial safety. Not only his appeal hasn't reached the Corrections Department – he was put in a cell-type premises for six months as a result. Who is guilty of this, and how have been the perpetrators punished?

I ask you to reply who and for what reason organizes the transfers of my son Mikalai Dziadok between prisons and colonies and who has fabricated the new criminal case against him. I want to know the surnames and official positions of those who do it and what for they need it. During all these years, I have endured these abuses, hoping that it all would finally stop at the end of the sentence, March 3, 2015. However, now not only the son's health, but my own health is being ruined with reference to unclear articles and uncertain grounds. I can't and don't have the right to ignore it and will cry about it to the whole world. Knowing our vertical-bureaucratic system, I understand that all actions against political prisoners are done on orders from the above. However, we call on everyone to remember about to remember about consciousness, humanness and responsibility before people and God!”

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Mikalai Dziadok was detained on September 3, 2010. May 27, 2011, the Zavadski District Court of Minsk sentenced him to 4.5 years of in a high-security colony under Article 339, part 2 of the Criminal Code, “malignant hooliganism”. December 5, 2012, the prison regime was toughened by a court verdict. As a result, Mikalai Dziadok was transferred from colony No. 17 in Shklou to prison No. 4 in Mahiliou.