Losik: Prison cell conditions in the heat are a death trap
"It feels like 40 degrees in the cell. There's no toilet, just a bucket that in such heat simply radiates like a graphite rod at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant."
In the coming days, Belarus will be covered by anomalous heat, and worst of all for people in detention, writes blogger and former political prisoner Ihar Losik.
"A year ago, these days I was in the KGB pre-trial detention center. The conditions in the "Amerikanka" cells during the heat are simply indescribable. "Death trap" is an understatement. There were seven of us in a four-person cell. Only a small transom was open to the outside. The ventilation opening to the corridor was blocked. It felt like 40 degrees in the cell. There's no toilet, just a bucket that in such heat simply radiates like a graphite rod at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant," Losik recalls on Facebook.
"In our first cell, water barely flowed from the tap. But even when it did, you tried not to use the tap often because the walls would start to weep. We simply stopped using the kettle for tea because if you turned it on once, there would be puddles on the floor from condensation. And it's impossible to wash, unlike in other pre-trial detention centers, even over a toilet — there's no toilet.
People faint, heart problems begin. Because of this situation, the administration allowed a fan in the cell, which didn't really change the situation much. It just circulates hot air within a meter radius, that's all. You hoped more that they would allow it to stay on at night, but suddenly an order came — turn off the outlets at night due to fire safety. It's absolutely impossible to sleep; the sheet sticks to the body, everything is dripping, everything stinks, everyone is groaning. A real breeding ground for tuberculosis. Such a situation in the cell begins when the outside temperature is around 22 degrees or higher. I can't imagine what will happen there at +35, which will be in a few days."