“Another political prisoner died in Belarus, 50-year-old Vadzim Hrasko. He was sentenced to three years in prison for making several donations to the colony, despite being seriously ill,” the largest human rights center Viasna Human Rights Defense Center. Organization in Belarus, said on social network.
He was seriously ill
As is known, Vadzim Khrasko, who was serving his sentence in the 3rd penal colony of Vitebsk, died on January 8-9. Human rights defenders learned about it on Saturday morning. According to them, Chrashko was sick in the prison and was taken to the hospital only when it was not possible to save him. Officially, the cause of Krashka's death was pneumonia.
The man was arrested in April 2023 and sent to Pre-Detention Center No. 1 in Minsk. In August, he was convicted of a charge related to “financing the activities of an extremist group.”
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Viasna reports that in Belarus, people who make donations to help repressed people and NGOs designated as “extremist” by Alexander Lukashenko's regime are sometimes punished. The man appealed, but the Supreme Court upheld the verdict.
In November 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus added Vadzim Khrasko to the list of extremists. According to Vyasna, he stayed in the Vitebsk colony for about three months.
Another victim of the Lukashenko regime
Activists recall that Khrushka's death is the fourth death of a political prisoner under Lukashenko's regime.
The first of them was Witold Azurak, a 50-year-old activist from Brzozówka, who died on May 21, 2021 in the penal colony 17 in Shklov.
Another death of a political prisoner occurred in Vitebsk Penal Colony. On May 7, 2023, blogger and social activist Mikalai Klimovich from Pinsk died there.
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On July 11, 2023, 57-year-old artist Ales Pushkin died in Grodno prison.
The former ambassador of Belarus to Poland, oppositionist and head of the National Anti-Crisis Directorate Pavel Latushka reported on the X platform that “1,500 political prisoners are in inhumane conditions in Belarus, subject to torture and slave labor every day.”
“Lukashenko is a killer and will continue to kill as long as he is in power,” he added.
