A political prisoner dies in Belarusian prison, human rights activists say
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian man has died in prison while serving a sentence for insulting the country's authoritarian president, a human rights group said Thursday, adding to a growing number of political prisoners who perished amid a relentless crackdown on dissent in the tightly controlled country.
Valiantsin Shtermer, 61, died in a prison colony in the city of Shklow in eastern Belarus, the Viasna Human Rights Center said. The exact date and the circumstances of his death weren't immediately known.
Shtermer, a businessman, was handed a five-year sentence after he was convicted in October 2023 on charges of insulting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and criticizing the Russian war in Ukraine. He was put on the list of 'extremists' and 'terrorists,' designations that implied particularly tough prison conditions.
Belarus was shaken by mass protests in 2020 following a disputed election that handed Lukashenko his sixth consecutive term in office. Authorities responded with a sweeping crackdown, in which more than 65,000 people were arrested and thousands were beaten by police. Top opposition figures were jailed or forced into exile, and hundreds of thousands fled abroad, fearing prosecution.
Shtermer was the eighth political prisoner to die in custody since 2020, according to Viasna. The group said Belarus currently holds nearly 1,200 political prisoners, including its founder, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for over 30 years and has relied on Kremlin subsidies and support, allowed Russia to use his country's territory to send troops into neighboring Ukraine in 2022 and to host some of its tactical nuclear weapons.
Belarusian authorities have recently released some political prisoners, including several U.S. citizens in what some observers saw as an attempt by Lukashenko to try to mend ties with the West, but others have remained behind bars.
The prison where Shtermer died has been known for its harsh conditions. Human rights activists said that he had suffered a stroke before being sent to the prison, but was put in a penitentiary cell upon arrival. He spoke with difficulty, had trouble walking and injured his hand after collapsing but never received medical assistance, they said.
Another political prisoner, Vitold Ashurok, died in the same prison in 2021.
'The Belarusian authorities bear the full responsibility for harassing political prisoners and creating torturous conditions for them and the death of innocent people behind bars,' said Viasna's Pavel Sapelka.
According to the United Nations, Belarus holds at least seven political prisoners with disabilities and another 78 who suffer from chronic and grave acute diseases.
'We are horrified by reports about appalling detention conditions, lack of proper medical care and deliberate ill-treatment of prisoners convicted in relation to the 2020 events, including persons with disabilities, and chronic and acute diseases,' U.N. experts said earlier this month.
They voiced particular concern about the condition of Viktoria Kulsha, 43, who was sentenced for taking part in protests and has been on a hunger strike since late April.
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