{"id":126438,"date":"2025-02-15T06:50:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T03:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/126438\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"at-least-33-sent-for-forced-treatment-on-political-grounds-since-2020","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/126438\/","title":{"rendered":"At least 33 sent for forced treatment on political grounds since 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Illustration photo (Mental Health RRPC)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

February 15, Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> At least 33 people have been sent for forced treatment for political reasons since 2020, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not less than 23 people are undergoing such treatment now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These individuals are usually tried behind closed doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most famous one is Maryja U\u015bpienskaja, the widow of Andrej Zielcar, killed in a shootout with Committee for State Security (KGB) officers. In June 2022, she was sentenced to forced psychiatric treatment for alleged complicity in the killing of KGB agent D\u017amitryj Fiedasiuk. There has been no news from her for a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In most cases, the imposition of compulsory treatment at a psychiatric hospital was related to exercising freedom of expression, in other words, for comments. There are 22 such cases,” Viasna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of compulsory psychiatric treatment for people who were not dangerous to themselves or others, it can amount to arbitrary deprivation of liberty, Viasna lawyer Pavie\u0142 Sapie\u0142ka said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siarhiej Drazdo\u016dski, head of the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, said that “all psychiatric care in Belarus has elements of coercion, which contradicts human rights and evidence-based medicine.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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