UN experts urge Belarusian authorities to assist dying political prisoner with cancer

TALLINN, Estonia -- U.N. human rights experts are asking Belarusian authorities to help a political prisoner named Pavel Kuchynski. He has a serious form of cancer. The experts are very worried because Kuchynski is not getting the medical help he needs. He is 29 years old and was put in jail in 2022. He got a sentence of four years and nine months for insulting the president and talking about violence. Kuchynski has a type of cancer called advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It got worse in jail, and he can't get a bone marrow transplant there. This is because the conditions in jail are not good for his treatment. Belarusian authorities have been very strict with anyone who disagrees with them since there were big protests after President Alexander Lukashenko's election in 2020. Many people, including the opposition in Belarus and Western countries, think the election was not fair. The experts are asking the authorities to release Kuchynski because of his serious health problems. They want him to be pardoned or have his sentence reduced. They also suggest finding a different punishment that is not jail. There are 1,401 political prisoners in Belarus right now. One of them is Ales Bialiatski, who won the Nobel Peace Prize. Some prisoners have died in jail, and many others have health issues that could be life-threatening. Kuchynski's situation shows that Belarus often gives very harsh punishments and makes jail conditions very bad. They also don't give prisoners the medical care they need. This information comes from Pavel Sapelka, who works with a human rights group in Belarus called Viasna.