An inmate was killed in Hrodna prison. His cellmates punished him

Hrodna prison. Photo: Nasha Niva

In the summer of 2022, 40-year-old inmate Yauhen Shypul was killed in Hrodna prison. His cellmates beat him in the exercise yard, and the administration, although they saw the situation escalating to a bloody conclusion, did nothing.

This story was told in a new episode of his YouTube channel by former political prisoner and blogger Mikalai Dziadok. Details of the situation were shared with Nasha Niva by former political prisoner Pavel Vinahradau, and the information was supplemented by Belpol.

Shypul was born in 1982 in Lida district, lived in Lida. He was unemployed. In 2005, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for robbery with murder. Over time, Shypul ended up in Mahiliou prison, where he was sentenced to an additional year for insubordination to the administration. As a result, he was transferred to Hrodna prison.

Павялічыць

Yauhen Shypul

An important point: Shypul had a severe mental disorder. According to Vinahradau, he had several 'personalities' – a criminal authority, some beauty, and something else. Naturally, this created constant communication problems with other inmates, so Shypul eventually acquired a 'low status'.

Due to his mental state, Shypul would take other people's belongings or food, which became a cause of conflicts and constant beatings. In such a situation, he should have been transferred to a solitary cell, but, as Vinahradau explains, the administration did not want to do that: it was easier to oblige cellmates to look after him.

Dziadok notes that the administration knew he was being beaten.

"He stood during inspection with black eyes. The cops, the cellblock guards, operative Syravatkin, come in to check. And they were told, and Syravatkin was specifically told: 'Take him away, otherwise there will be an emergency here'. But Syravatkin replied: 'I don't give a damn,'” the blogger quotes eyewitnesses.

As a result, after another theft, cellmates began to beat Shypul as a whole group right in the exercise yard. According to Dziadok, the inmate sustained numerous injuries — he suffered a ruptured spleen and internal organ hematomas, and his kidney was also damaged.

Since in Hrodna prison, according to the blogger, all participants in any conflict are considered guilty, the beaten Shypul was sent to the punishment cell (ShIZA) along with his attackers.

With serious injuries, the man remained in the isolation ward for five days. During all this time, the administration ignored his moans and suffering. Only when the situation became critical was Shypul taken to the hospital. Dziadok notes that in the hospital, for unknown reasons, the man was not operated on and was returned to prison.

The inmate did not make it back to his cell. According to Dziadok, Shypul died right in the corridor ('na pradolie').

To conceal negligence and protect their agents among the inmates, the prison administration (specifically, operative department employee Syravatkin and the then-head of the operative department Aliaksei Taran) chose one person from the entire group who had beaten Shypul. He was blamed entirely for the murder, as a result of which, according to Dziadok, the man received 14 years of special regime in addition to his main sentence.

“They practically say directly: 'The more of you die, the better for the criminal situation in Belarus,'” Dziadok says about the administration of Hrodna prison.

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