Belarus political prisoners face abuse, no medical care and isolation, former inmate says
During his three years in a Belarusian penal colony, human rights activist Leanid Sudalenka says he and other political prisoners were regularly deprived of family visits, phone calls and parcels. He nearly died when COVID-19 swept through the facility. And he was forced to spend the last nine days of his sentence in a damp punishment cell, sleeping on the concrete floor with a roll of toilet paper for a pillow.
He had to wear a yellow tag on his uniform — as do all the estimated 1,473 political prisoners held in Belarus — so they're easily identifiable to guards who he said routinely bullied, abused and humiliated them.
“The Belarusian authorities deliberately create terrible detention conditions for political prisoners, which qualify as torture,” Sudalenka said in an.
