Jailed reporter not getting proper medical treatment – report

January 27, BPN. Prison authorities are not providing jailed reporter Siarhiej Sacuk with proper medical treatment, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) has said. His health is deteriorating.

Relatives of the 54-year-old journalist received two letters from him, written in Mahiloŭ’s detention center. He complained that a lack of of pills led to heart problems.

“He got very sick: his temperature rose and his maxillary sinusitis aggravated,” the BAJ quoted the relatives as saying. “He writes that this time it is serious. But only when he developed a severe cough, the doctor gave him an antibiotic and even allowed him two days of bed rest, an unprecedented relief in itself. He still has heart problems and has had an attack of atrial fibrillation. That’s because he takes only half a dose in order to save pills, which are running out. They don’t give him the drugs we sent, although he regularly asks for them. Unfortunately, his painful condition is ignored.”

On top of that, prison authorities regularly transfer the journalist from one cell to another, which “does not help both his physical or psychological condition,” they added.

Most of Sacuk’s letters don’t get through, the BAJ noted.

Sacuk would spend at least several weeks in pre-trial detention in Mahiloŭ. The Supreme Court is expected to consider his appeal on February 10.

Law enforcers arrested Sacuk on December 8, 2021. On the same day, the Ministry of Information blocked access to Ej.by, a news website that he founded.

On October 26, the Minsk City Court sentenced Sacuk to eight years in prison on charges widely seen as politically motivated.

At least 32 journalists remain behind bars, the BAJ said.