On July 14, 2023, news emerged about a shocking incident at Correctional Facility No. 2 in Bobruisk, where a prisoner jumped out of a window. The inmate had been convicted and sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment under the charge of illegal drug trafficking (Part 4 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code). Human rights activists have revealed that the tragic event actually occurred on July 8, but the details of the incident have only now come to public knowledge.

The deceased (or possibly murdered) convict was identified as Dmitry Orlov. He had three children and was an orphan himself. While in pretrial detention, Dmitry Orlov took the difficult decision to divorce his wife “in order not to cause her problems and not to take away the money from his own children for his care packages to jail”.

Orlov jumped from the window of the fourth floor of the highest building in IK-2, also known as “Titanic” (where the 6th convict unit is located). Human rights activists cite the excessive cruelty of the colony’s administration towards inmates convicted under Part 4 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code as the reason behind his suicide.

It is worth mentioning that those convicted under Part 4 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code are not eligible for amnesty, conditional release (PAROLE), or substitution of an unserved term of imprisonment with a lenient one. This means there was no possibility of early release for this man. Moreover, following a direct and public order from Alexander Lukashenko, the living conditions in the colony for such convicts are deliberately made extremely harsh.

Our House’s info:

“We need to create unbearable conditions for them in the places where they serve their sentences. If there are too many of them, let’s allocate one of our colonies for this purpose. Let’s establish a regime for them in such a way that, I must say, they would beg for death while sitting in this colony”, Lukashenko stated in December 2016.

As human rights activists believe, the excessive cruelty of Article 328, Part 4 of the Criminal Code, which deals with drug crimes committed by an organized group, became the reason for Dmitry Orlov’s suicide. Typically, investigators who manage to bring someone under this article are rewarded with getting promotions. That’s why the evidence in such cases is often highly questionable. Additionally, while in detention, the convicted individuals are subjected to repeated interrogations in an effort to build new criminal cases against others based on their testimonies.

Dmitry could not endure all of this…

Our House

Related articles:

Former Policeman Andrei Shkliar from Belarusian Town of Grodno Was Convicted under Article «High Treason» The situation with Belarusian conscientious objectors and deserters was discussed at the 52nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva Lithuanian lawyer who spied for the KGB on women human rights defenders of Our House is back in prison confinement Mantas Danielius, suspected of espionage in favor of the Belarusian regime, remains in custody A school for juvenile offenders opened in Gomel pre-trial isolation facility. What does it mean? Olga Karach: Investigations into Violations of Children Rights in Belarus Should Be a Priority