Political prisoner and blogger Pavel Vinahradau transferred to high-security prison
Today, the court decided to change the prisoner’s detention conditions, transferring him to a high-security prison for one year.
Sviatlana Vinahradava, the wife of the political prisoner, reported this on Facebook.
Pavel Vinahradau is a public figure, blogger, and TV presenter. On 22 December 2021, Pavel was detained in Berazino, where he lived with his family. He was charged under three criminal articles for his Facebook post: inciting racial, national, religious, or other social enmity; organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order or actively participating in them; and defaming the President.
On 16 March 2022, Pavel Vinahradau was sentenced to five years in prison.
The reason for his transfer is still unknown. However, it is reported that the administration of Correctional Facility 11 in Vaukavysk created unbearable conditions for the political prisoner this year. Pavel revealed that he spent almost half a year – with small breaks – in a punishment cell, only to be later put in a Secure Housing Unit (SHU).
In the summer of 2022, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and transferred to specialized Correctional Facility 12 in Orsha, where he lost 36 kilograms.
However, despite his bad health, the administration of that institution placed him in segregation for a month and denied him food parcels from his relatives. Vinahradau was then held in a SHU for six months. In February of this year, after completing his treatment in CF-12, he was returned to Vaukavysk.
The activist has become a political prisoner for the second time. Last time he received a four-year prison sentence for participating in protests following the 2010 presidential election.
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