KAVIV, Ukraine (AP) – A Kovid-19 wave has led to Belarusian prisons being filled with people in custody for protesting against the country’s dictatorial president, and some protesters who contracted the coronavirus while imprisoned officials were ignored or So encourage infection.
Activists who spoke to the Associated Press after their release described largely crowded cells without proper ventilation or lack of basic facilities and medical treatment.
The musician, 35-year-old Kyastus Liseski, who was sentenced to 15 days in prison for participating in the protests, said he was hospitalized with a high fever eight days later in a prison in eastern Belarus and was diagnosed with Covid-19-induced double pneumonia.
“The damp walls covered by parasites, the shocking lack of sanitary steps, the shivering cold and the rusting beds – these were the same ones I found in Mogilev’s prison instead of medical help,” Lieski told the AP in a telephone interview. “I had a fever and fainted, and the guards had to call an ambulance.”
Lisetsky said that before entering the prison, he and three bandmates were held in a Minsk prison and had to sleep on the floor of a cell intended for only two people. All four people have been infected with the virus. After being released from hospital, Lisetsky will have to return to prison to serve the remaining seven days of his sentence.
He accused the government of letting the virus run wild among people imprisoned for political reasons.
“The guards openly say they do it on purpose on purpose,” Liseski said.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been detained for protesting against the recent election victory of President Alexander Lukashenko. Opposition groups and some election activists say Lukashenko was sentenced to a sixth term in office.
Meanwhile, peaceful protests broke repeatedly with clubs and stun grenades. The brutal crackdown on alleged ballot-harassment and demonstrations has prompted the United States and the European Union to impose sanctions on Belarusian officials.
Opposition candidate Shikhanoskaya of Svetlana, who finished second in the presidential election, called on foreign leaders and international organizations to intervene to help the coronavirus outbreak in Belarus after he challenged Lukashenko’s official results with 0% of the vote. Prisons.
“In central Europe, prisoners have been deliberately infected with coronavirus,” Sikhanauskaya told the Associated Press. “They move infected people from one cell to another, and the cells are overcrowded and lack ventilation. It is an atrocity, it can only be assessed as abuse and torture. “
Authorities have not released the number of prisoners with COVID-19, but rights activists say they tested positive after thousands of protesters were detained.
“The dire state of Belarus’s penal system has contributed to the outbreak of COVID-19 in prisons, but the authorities have not even tried to rectify the situation and put thousands of activists on the conveyor,” said Valentin Stefanovich, vice chairman of the Viasna rights center.
Artesiom Liawa, a 44-year-old journalist, said he became infected last month while awaiting a court hearing in a prison cell, but planned to hold about 100 inmates. Liava was detained while protesting for an independent Belsat TV channel in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
“First, fellow inmates and then I stopped smelling prison,” he told the Associated Press. “All of us were experiencing fever, severe cough and weakness, but they didn’t even give us hot water.”
After receiving a 15-day sentence, Liava said, he was moved to different prisons and jails in Minsk and nearby cities, as authorities struggled to keep inmates in crowded detention facilities. He said he has seen similar situations in all of them – cellmates have difficulty coughing or breathing, and the jail warden insists on neglecting them.
“It was like a joke, the doctors weren’t responding to requests and complaints,” Liava said. “Sleep was banned during the day and the pillows were off. We all felt tired, but forced to sit on an iron bed in the basement without access to fresh air. ”
The reporter said he did not find a single dose of medicine behind the hardening. Just the second day after his release from prison, Liaova said he tested positive for COVID-19, and a CT scan showed that his lungs were badly affected.
“Prison doctors should be prosecuted for negligence. They risked our lives by denying us (basic) medical treatment, ”said Liawana, who had a severe cough and had difficulty breathing while talking to AP.
Belarus has reported more than 180,000 confirmed coronavirus cases since the onset of the epidemic, but many in the former Soviet republic of 9.4 million people suspect the authorities of manipulating statistics to hide the true scope of the country’s outbreak.
During the epidemic, Lukashenko fired the coronavirus at the beginning of the equinox and the new error caused a “mentality” and advised citizens to avoid catching it by driving a tractor on a farm, drinking vodka and visiting the sauna. His attitude has angered many Belarusians, adding to his resentment over his authoritarian style and helping to escalate post-election protests.
Dr Ihr Hotsin, who works at Minsk’s top oncology hospital, was detained as he protested against the crackdown on protesters at a rally of medical workers. He said he and four of his colleagues who were arrested had taken the virus into their own hands.
Ots0-year-old Hotsin believes he was infected at the Baronovichi city jail, where he was held in a 15-square-meter (12-square-foot) cell, along with other inmates.
“Five doctors from our hospital were detained, and all five tested positive for COVID-19 after discharge, at a 100% rate,” Hotsin said. “We should cry out loud about the outbreak of COVID-19 in prisons full of political prisoners.”
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