Cancer-stricken BPF leader back in cell after procedure
Ryhor Kastusioŭ
April 4, Pozirk. Ryhor Kastusioŭ, jailed leader of the outlawed Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) diagnosed with cancer, has been placed in a prison cell immediately after doctors installed a urinary catheter, his son-in-law Dźmitryj Antončyk said on Facebook.
The procedure may be usually performed once every three to four weeks to drain urine or provide treatment, depending on the patient’s needs.
In late February, the United Nations human rights experts expressed their concern at Kastusioŭ’s reported critical condition and ill-treatment, calling on the authorities to grant him a pardon or remission of sentence.
Kastusioŭ, 66, is serving a 10-year prison term after being found guilty of conspiracy to seize power in connection with a Zoom call, in which he said he took part as a listener.
In mid-January, authorities transferred him to a Hrodna prison where he is held in a single cell. The politician’s family members said he complained of deteriorating health.
The prison administration deprived him of visits and confiscated his personal records and correspondence contacts.
Human rights defenders consider Kastusioŭ a political prisoner.
UN rights experts urge Minsk to pardon jailed opposition politician with cancer
February 27, Pozirk. The United Nations human rights experts have called on the Belarusian government to grant veteran opposition politician Ryhor Kastusioŭ a pardon or remission of sentence, or replace his imprisonment with an alternative form of deprivation of liberty. …