Updated at 17:53,27-03-2024

‘Mothers-328’: Woman hospitalised after hunger strike

belsat.eu

‘Mothers-328’: Woman hospitalised after hunger strike
Tatsyana Kaneuskaya
Tatsyana Kaneuskaya, one of the mothers that had participated in a recent hunger strike, had a pain attack on Friday. However, according to Kaneuskaya, she is ‘locked and loaded’.

The woman suffering from cholecystitis will have her gallbladder removed tomorrow, she told Belsat.

“On Friday I was in Minsk, filed an appeal to Prosecutor General Alyaksandr Kanyuk – I raised the issue of our meeting with him which had been postponed. I also filed a written request to Chairman Valyantsin Sukala with a proposal to hold an extraordinary plenum of the Supreme Court so that they could change the judicial practice on the application of Article 328 of the Criminal Code (illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs).


On April 27, the members of the movement Mothers-328 started a two-week hunger strike, seeking to mitigate the punishment under criminal article 328.

The main demand of the movement is making amendments into the Criminal Code. They believe that punishment for drug felons is disproportionate and too severe, e.g. up to 10 years behind bars for half a gram of some drug.

On May 2, head of the presidential administration Natallya Kachanava told the women that it was the law enforcement agencies that were against the mitigation. The Mothers-328 stopped the strike on May, 11 after the officials promised them the draft bill on mitigation would be immediately handed over to MPs. The hunger strikers were also seeking a meeting with president Alyaksandr Lukashenka, but they were flatly turned down.

In early April, Minsk activists held a rally for the decriminalisation of light drugs. There were 14 people demanding changes to article 328 — the abolition of punishment for the use of light drugs. Some participants of the action were fined.