Three prisoners, Igor Losik, Igor Banzer, and Dmitry Furmanov, are on hunger strike in the remand centers.
Igor Losik has declared a second hunger strike, this time a dry one. The previous Igor Losik held 42 days and stopped when he learned that some Belarusians also started a hunger strike in solidarity with him.
The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) requested the Belarusian authorities to release Igor Losik and to drop the charges against him.
«It is inadmissible that the report about the elections in Belarus cost the journalist freedom», – said representatives of the Agency.
Igor Banzer hasn’t eaten or drunk in 11 days. The danger of a dry hunger strike is that after 10 days it is difficult to cope with dehydration and hunger. The musician from Grodno is kept in harsh conditions: no contact with his family, two weeks in solitary confinement, and forced psychiatric examination.
On 11 March, political prisoner Dmitry Furmanov announced a hunger strike in court. He protests against the conditions of detention in the Grodno prison. On 9 March, Furmanov was placed in solitary confinement for five days. For the past month, he has been taken out of his cell solely in handcuffs.
In Belarus, there are cases of hunger strikes by political prisoners to achieve their goals.
In January, Natalia Hersche, a Belarusian and Swiss national, ended her first hunger strike when the Swiss Ambassador was allowed to visit her, began to transmit letters, and improved conditions of detention.
In 2009, entrepreneur Nikolai Avtukhovich starved for 90 days and obtained a change in the measure of preventive detention to house arrest.
Support Belarusians, who have taken extreme measures to draw the attention of Belarusian and international public opinion to illegal detention and harsh conditions of detention.
Addresses for Igor Losik and Dmitry Furmanov – on politzek.me, Igor Banzer – on dissident.by.
