BAJ pleades with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Health Care, Department of Corrections for hospitalizing Andrzej Paczobut

Here is the full text of the let­ter:

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists learned that BAJ mem­ber, jour­nal­ist Andrzej Pac­zobut, who is in cus­tody in prison #8 «does not receive the much-need­ed med­ical care. Media and Andrze­j’s fam­i­ly report that he has got Covid-19, but con­tin­ues to stay in an over­crowd­ed cell with twelve oth­er peo­ple.

Andrzej Pac­zobut has a coro­nary heart dis­ease. Hav­ing coro­na in his cur­rent con­di­tions (includ­ing restric­tions on sit­ting or lying dur­ing the day), jeop­ar­dizes Andrze­j’s health and life. In addi­tion, all his cell­mates as well as the staff of the cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ty are at risk of get­ting the infec­tion.

We ask to imme­di­ate­ly hos­pi­tal­ize Andrzej Pac­zobut and pro­vide him with the nec­es­sary med­ical care. We draw your atten­tion that the cur­rent arrange­ment does not meet any med­ical or legal require­ments of pre­tri­al deten­tion of per­sons whose guilt has not even been estab­lished by court. It is even more unac­cept­able dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, as it under­mines the health of the peo­ple and puts their lives at risk.»