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Dashkevich complains about conditions in jail in Minsk

Prominent opposition activist Zmitser Dashkevich has complained to the Minsk City Prosecutor`s Office about the "inhuman" conditions in the detention center on Akrestsina Street.

On Saturday, the co-chairman of an opposition youth organization called Malady Front was released from the jail upon completion of a three-day term, imposed on him for collecting signatures in downtown Minsk.

In his complaint, Mr. Dashkevich describes the conditions in the jail on Akrestsina Street as torturous.

He notes that inmates are not fed on the day of their arrival at the detention center. "Is it not barbarous that people are kept without food on the concrete floor of a police station for two days and then brought to the detention center and not fed for one more day?" he writes. "Or do our courts order the torture of people instead of the temporary restriction of their freedom not at the expense of their basic rights to sleep and eat?"

Mr. Dashkevich notes that the cells in the jail are poorly lit and not ventilated. He says that as a non-smoker, he was "choking" in one cell together with "five people smoking day and night."

Mr. Dashkevich adds that the jail administration does not pay attention to leaking taps and toilets in many cells despite the fact that 2013 was declared the Year of Thrift. //BelaPAN