Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – A wave of COVID-19 has engulfed Belarusian prisons full of people in custody for protesting against the nation’s authoritarian president and some of the protesters who contracted coronavirus while in prison, authorities accuse neglecting or even encouraging infections.
Activists who spoke to the Associated Press after the release described massive overcrowded cells without adequate ventilation or basic facilities and a lack of medical treatment.
Kastus Lisetsky, 35, a musician who received a 15-day sentence for participating in a protest, said he was hospitalized with high fever after eight days in a prison in eastern Belarus and was diagnosed with pneumonia. on both sides induced by COVID-19.
“The damp walls covered with parasites, the shocking lack of sanitation, the shivering cold and the rusty bed – that’s what I got in the Mogilev prison instead of medical care,” Lisetsky told the AP in a telephone interview. “I had a fever and lost consciousness, and the guards had to call an ambulance.”
Lisetsky said that before entering prison, he and three fellow soldiers were held in a Minsk prison and had to sleep on the floor of a cell intended for only two people. All four contracted the virus. Lisetsky must return to prison to serve the remaining seven days of his sentence after being discharged from hospital.
He accused the government of allowing the virus to erupt among those imprisoned for political reasons.
“Guards openly say they do it deliberately on order,” Lisetsky said.
More than 30,000 people have been detained for taking part in protests against the re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in August in a vote that opposition activists and some election workers say has been arranged to give Lukashenko a sixth term .
Police have repeatedly broken up peaceful protests with stun guns and grenades. The alleged rigging of votes and the brutal repression of demonstrations led the United States and the European Union to impose sanctions on Belarusian officials.
Opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ranks second in the presidential election and was forced to leave the country after contesting official results, giving Lukashenko 80 percent of the vote, called on foreign leaders and international organizations to intervene. helps stop the outbreak of coronavirus in Belarus. prisons.
“In central Europe, detainees are deliberately infected with coronavirus,” Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press. “It moves infected people from one cell to another, and the cells are overcrowded and lack ventilation. It is an atrocity, it can only be evaluated as abuse and torture “.
Authorities have not released the number of prisoners with COVID-19, but rights activists say thousands of protesters have tested positive after being detained.
“The horrific condition of the Belarusian prison system contributed to the outbreak of COVID-19 in prisons, but the authorities did not even try to improve the situation and put thousands of activists on that carrier,” said Valiantsin Stefanovic, vice president of the Viasna Rights Center. , said.
Artsiom Liava, a 44-year-old journalist, said he became infected last month while waiting for a court hearing in a prison cell designed to house 10 but about 100 detainees. Liava was detained while covering a protest in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, for the independent television station Belsat.
“First, my fellow detainees, and then I stopped smelling the prison,” he told The Associated Press. “We all had a fever, a strong cough, and we felt weak, but they didn’t even give us hot water.”
Liava said that after receiving a 15-day sentence, he was transferred to various prisons and prisons in Minsk and nearby cities, while authorities were struggling to accommodate detainees in overcrowded detention facilities. He said he witnessed similar conditions in all of them – cellmates coughing or having difficulty breathing, and prison administrators treat them with emphatic neglect.
“It was like a mockery, the doctors did not respond to complaints and grievances,” Liava said. “It was forbidden to sleep during the day and the mattresses were folded. We all felt exhausted, but we had to sit on iron beds in the basement without access to fresh air. “
The journalist said that he did not receive a single dose of medicine during his internship behind bars. The day after he left prison, Liava said, he tested positive for COVID-19, and a CT scan showed that his lungs were severely damaged.
“Prison doctors should be prosecuted for negligence. They put our lives in danger by refusing our (basic) medical treatment “, said Liava, who had a strong cough and had difficulty breathing while talking to the PA.
Belarus has reported more than 180,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, but many in the former Soviet republic, with 9.4 million people, suspect authorities are manipulating statistics to hide the true extent of outbreaks in the country.
Lukashenko cavalierly rejected the coronavirus early in the pandemic, raising fears and national blockages caused by the new error as “psychosis” and advising citizens to avoid getting caught driving tractors in the field, consuming vodka and visiting saunas. His attitude angered many Belarusians, adding to the public’s despair over his authoritarian style and helping to fuel post-election protests.
Ihar Hotsin, a doctor who worked at a top oncology hospital in Minsk, was detained when he joined a rally of medical workers who opposed the crackdown on demonstrations. He said he and four of his colleagues who had been arrested had all contracted the virus in custody.
Hotsin, 30, is believed to have become infected at a prison in the town of Baranovichi, where he was held in a 12-square-meter (129-square-meter) cell along with 80 other detainees.
“Five doctors from our hospital were detained and all five tested positive for COVID-19 after release, at a rate of 100%,” Hotsin said. “We must shout loudly about an outbreak of COVID-19 in prisons crowded with political prisoners.”
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