We remind you that other political prisoners are also being pressured: Maria Kolesnikova, with whom Maxim Znak was convicted, has been denied access to her lawyer since November 17. It turned out that Maria was hospitalized and ended up in the intensive care unit. Prior to her hospitalization, she was also placed in solitary confinement.
On December 1, Viktar Babaryka (Maxim Znak was his headquarters lawyer) and Maria Kolesnikova’s attorneys were not certified by the Ministry of Justice. We are talking about attorneys Uladzimir Pylchanka and Viktar Matskevich. All the previous attorneys who took on the defense of Viktar, Maria, and Maxim were disbarred.
Viktar Babaryka’s confinement labor conditions (sentenced to 14 years of prison) have drastically worsened. Viktar is involved in the production of charcoal. He has to work outdoors full-time (9 hours) six days a week without access to the domestic premises, where it would be possible to warm himself during the shift. The politician's relatives are particularly concerned that despite the medical contraindications that were voiced, his work involves lifting heavy weights, as well as high levels of smoke. Earlier Viktar Babaryka worked as a bakery stacker and had to stay in a bakery, in a room with practically no ventilation and a temperature of up 30 ºC. His first "occupation" in the colony was as a bakery stoker.
A cell-type unit is a special room in which prisoners are held as a punishment for malicious violations of the established procedure for serving their sentence in penal colonies under the general, medium security, and maximum security regimes.
Convicts transferred to the unit have the following rights:
- to spend, on a monthly basis, the money available in their personal accounts in the amount of 1 basic unit (32 BYN) for the purchase of food and basic necessities;
- to receive 1 parcel per 6 months;
- to have a 30-minute daily walk;
