Natallia Papkova: This Mayhem Should Never Be Tolerated

The Joan of Arc from Brest is telling about the confinement conditions in the Akrestsin Street detention center.

Activist of the steering committee of the Belarusian Social Democratic party “People’s Assembly” and the “Young Belarus” youth organization Natallia Papkova has been released from the Akrestsin Street detention center after 14 days of administrative detention, praca-by.info writes.

Natallia was arrested on May 1 in Minsk.

– A line of people started moving towards the GUM store, I decided it was time to leave and headed for the car with my friends. Suddenly, three riot policemen ran to me, knocked me down to the ground, twisted my arms and dragged me to the car with no explanations. After that they drove me in some unknown direction, – Natallia described her detention.

In the Akrestsin Street detention center Natallia was finally explained that she had been detained due to the pending detention term for having committed an administrative offence.

– During my first days in the Akrestsin Street detention center, there were several women sharing the cell with me, one of them was sick in chicken pox. She was transferred to some other cell in the end. On the eve of May 9, they placed two more women in the cell, they looked like homeless people. This was the result of the mop-up operation before the Victory Day, — the activist ironically says.

– After the complaints about the absense of walks which I wrote together with my cellmates, the guards took me for a walk, but used physical force against me. Herein, the detention center’s official kept saying “I am the law”.

Natallia says she received parcels regularly, although sometimes there were delays. Her friends introduced themselves as her relatives, as only relatives and family members are allowed to pass things and water to the inmates in the Akrestsin Street detention center.

– Once they didn’t let the lawyer visit me, – Natallia continues. – The detention center’s officials told there was no place for a meeting. However, they managed to find the place the next day and I saw my lawyer in the end.

Natallia’s further plans are quite specific:

– First, I need to handle work issues. Then I will wait for the reply to my complaint against the confinement conditions in the detention center, and then I will write, demand, fight for my rights. This mayhem should never be tolerated.