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Political Prisoner Mikhail Zhamchuzhny Spends 1,5 Years In Punitive Confinement In Horki Penal Colony

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Political Prisoner Mikhail Zhamchuzhny Spends 1,5 Years In Punitive Confinement In Horki Penal Colony
MIKHAIL ZHAMCHUZHNY

Zhamchuzhny has already filed more than 50 complaints against the sentences in the Horki penal colony #9.

Political prisoner Mikhail Zhamchuzhny, who has been serving his sentence in a colony in Horki for the last two years, refuses to go to the detachment, for which he is invariably punished by transferring him to punitive confinement or the cell-type premises (CTP), Radio Svaboda reports.

According to his lawyer, Zhamchuzhny has already filed more than 50 complaints against the sentences in the Horki penal colony #9. None of them were satisfied.

On June 17, the Mahiliou Regional Court dismissed another complaint of Mikhail Zhamchuzhny regarding levy from the Horki colony. The reason for it was the regular transfer of Zhamchuzhny to the cell-type premises for 2 months.

So, Zhamchuzhny was punished for refusing to obey an order to go into a detachment to live with other convicts (a detachment in a colony is a group of prisoners who live in the same building under the direction of one prison warden).

According to human rights activists, Mikhail Zhamchuzhny spent in the punitive confinement and the cell-type premises a year and a half out of the two that he is in the Horki colony.

Why doesn’t Zhamchuzhny want to go to the detachment?

Zhamchuzhny grounds insubordination to the administration with the desire to prevent a threat to personal security, as well as an attempt on human honor and dignity. He insists that the threat comes from other convicts and demands that they should find a safe place in the colony for him to serve the sentence. His appeals remain without satisfaction.

Mikhail Zhamchuzhny has been punished with placing to the punitive confinement, or sending to the cell-type premises since 2017. Then he had a conflict with other convicts, which led to the fact that he began to be threatened with physical violence. To prevent a conflict, the administration periodically transferred Zhamchuzhny from one unit to another, but this did not help.

The fact of the conflict was recognized by the Horki court, which considered, however, that the convict “overestimated” the value of his arguments about the conflict.

According to lawyer Vadzim Mushynski, Zhamchuzhny sees a way out of the situation in his isolation. The administration of the colony regularly isolates him, imposing penalties. This form of “saving” the convict has negative consequences.

Zhamchuzhny in the colony is registered as a malicious violator of the regime. This status does not allow him to be released on parole or amnesty. As a malicious violator, he is deprived of meetings with relatives. For five years of imprisonment, Zhamchuzhny only saw his lawyer.

Vadzim Mushynski notes: if the administration of the colony satisfies Zhamchuzhny’s appeals and puts him in a safe place, they will thereby acknowledge the fact of a real threat to him. According to him, Zhamchuzhny himself will not go to the detachment and believes that the current situation is artificially created in order to make his life more difficult.

Zhamchuzhny does not complain about the conditions of serving the sentence in the punitive confinement, says the lawyer.

Who is Mr. Zhamchuzhny

Mikhail Zhamchuzhny is 62 years old. He taught at the Vitsebsk Technological University. He led a research laboratory that worked on the production of hydrogen for use in industry.

In 2008, he was convicted to 4 years in jail for “economic abuse”. The man appealed the sentence, but in vain;

In 2012, after his release, he got engaged in human rights activities, became one of the founders of the human rights organization Platform Innovation;

In 2015, he was convicted by the Vitsebsk Regional Court: he was found guilty of “inciting to deliberately giving out information” constituting official secrets; of “illegal acquisition and sale” of a special technical device intended for secretly receiving information; and “giving a bribe”;

He was sentenced to 6 years in prison in a reinforced-security colony. The judicial board for criminal cases of the Supreme Court sentenced him to 6.5 years of imprisonment.

The consideration of the case was carried out by the courts in the closed regime. He pleaded innocent.

Zhamchuzhny served his sentence in the colonies in Navasyad and Ivatsevichy. He spent the last two years in the Horki penal colony #9;

Human rights defenders have recognized him as a political prisoner. They insist that the sentence must be abolished and that the case must be reconsidered at an open trial.

He was supposed to be released in February 2021.

Human rights activists are preparing a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee on behalf of Zhamchuzhny.

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