{"id":3965,"date":"2023-10-06T12:47:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T09:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=3965"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"jailed-trade-unionist-in-urgent-need-of-kidney-transplant-rights-group","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/3965\/","title":{"rendered":"Jailed trade unionist in urgent need of kidney transplant \u2013 rights group"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>October 6,\u00a0<em>Pozirk<\/em>.\u00a0<\/strong>Vasil Biera\u015bnie\u016d, 73, one of the jailed leaders of the Belarusian Trade Union of Electronic Industry Workers, has been hospitalized at the Mahilo\u016d regional hospital, the Viasna Human Rights Center reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His health significantly deteriorated in custody, yet prison authorities have been ignoring his requests for medical exams, human rights defenders said. The activist suffers from high blood pressure and his only remaining kidney is not functioning properly. He may need a transplant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The situation&nbsp;is critical and may lead to another tragedy behind bars, human rights defender Ihar Ka\u017amier\u010dak noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Biera\u015bnie\u016d is currently serving a nine-year prison term on charges widely seen as politically motivated. He has been in custody since April 2022, when a wave of arrests of independent trade union activists swept across Belarus.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities blacklisted the electronic union as an extremist group and accused its leaders, including Biera\u015bnie\u016d, of inciting hatred, calling for sanctions and running an extremist group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In July 2022, the Supreme Court ruled to shut down all Belarusian independent trade unions as well as their umbrella organization, the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>International trade union confederations condemned the crackdown and urged authorities to immediately restore workers&#8217; right to freedom of association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 6,\u00a0Pozirk.\u00a0Vasil Biera\u015bnie\u016d, 73, one of the jailed leaders of the Belarusian Trade Union of Electronic Industry Workers, has been hospitalized at the Mahilo\u016d regional hospital, the Viasna Human Rights Center reports. His health significantly deteriorated in custody, yet prison authorities have been ignoring his requests for medical exams, human rights defenders said. The activist [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-3965","articles","type-articles","status-publish","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jailed trade unionist in urgent need of kidney transplant \u2013 rights group | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 6,\u00a0Pozirk.\u00a0Vasil Biera\u015bnie\u016d, 73, one of the jailed leaders of the Belarusian Trade Union of Electronic Industry Workers, has been hospitalized at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/3965\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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