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Opposition activist Parfyankow held in «treatment and labor center» in Homyel region

Opposition activist Vasil Parfyankow is held in Treatment and Labor Center No. 1 in Svetlahorsk, Homyel region, according to a human rights group called Vyasna.

Mr. Parfyankow was moved to the custodial facility, where alcoholics and drug addicts work and receive treatment, from the detention center on Akrestsina Street on September 21.

On September 4, a judge of the Pershamayski District Court in Minsk ordered Mr. Parfyankow sent to the facility for six months. The activist did not attend the hearing.
Vyasna stressed that a person may not be sentenced to a term in a treatment and labor center in his absence.

The practice of sending people who have not been charged with a criminal offense to treatment and labor centers is a violation of human rights, the group stressed.

Mr. Parfyankow, 30, was sentenced to prison in connection with a post-election protest staged in Minsk’s Independence Square on December 19, 2010.

He was granted a presidential pardon in August 2011. He was later placed under preventive police supervision.

Mr. Parfyankow has recently been charged with violating the terms of preventive police supervision. The date of his trial is not yet known. //BelaPAN