Mikita Yemyalyanau on hunger strike

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from belsat.eu

Original title: Political prisoner Mikita Yemyalyanau on hunger strike for two weeks

Mikita Yemyalyanau was placed in a disciplinary cell for 20 days; two weeks ago, he started hunger-striking, the human rights centre Viasna reports.

It has become known that Mikita Yemyalyanau has been kept in punitive confinement since October, 11. The administration of Mahiliou prison Nr 4, where Mikita is serving his sentence, has twice imposed 10-day terms on him as a punishment for allegedly violating internal rules.

On October 11, Mikita went on a hunger strike in protest. The prison authorities failed to arrange his meeting with a priest, although the young man had written a corresponding appeal in the summer. In addition, the political prisoner is barred from receiving letters from his friend Zmitser Paliyenka and other people.

On September 22, Mikita Yemyalyanau was released from punitive isolation ward after serving 42 days there. Then six protocols were drawn upon him.

Belarusian anarchists Mikita Yemyalyanau and Ivan Komar were charged under Art. 341 of the Criminal Code (‘desecration of buildings and destruction of property;), Art. 295.3 (‘wrongful acts involving combustible materials’) and Art. 344 (‘intentional damage to historical and cultural values’).

The two 19-year-olds were detained on 20 October 2019. According to the investigators, in September, the men pelted the building of Minsk City Court with paint bulbs; a month later, the duo threw a Molotov cocktail at the detention facility in Valadarski street. In such a way, they allegedly expressed solidarity with Zmitser Paliyenka, another activist of the anarchist movement, who was standing trial in the autumn of 2019.

The trial kicked off on 6 February 2020 in Savetski district court of Minsk. On February 11, public prosecutor Ihar Seneu asked the court to sentence them to seven years of imprisonment in a medium security penal colony. Delivering the verdict, judge Alyaksandr Yakunchykhin took heed of the prosecution’s demand.

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