AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

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FACTS OF THE CASE:

In September 2002, Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky's wife, Galina Bandazhevskaya, visited her husband in jail and found his health had dramatically deteriorated. In June 2001, a Belarusian military court sentenced Dr. Bandazhevsky to eight years in prison on charges of taking bribes from his students. Human rights organizations and scientific societies believe that the conviction was in retaliation for Dr. Bandazhevsky's criticism of government health policies. The colleague of Dr. Bandazhevsky who initially made the allegations of bribery subsequently withdrew the statement and claimed that the testimony he gave was the result of torture inflicted by the security forces. The Advisory and Monitoring Group for Belarus in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe issued a statement stating that no evidence had been provided to the court to substantiate Dr. Bandazhevsky's guilt.

Dr. Bandazhevsky is a respected medical researcher and an expert on the effects of radiation exposure. In 1999, he wrote a highly critical research report that claimed that the Ministry of Health and one of its research divisions, the Institute of Radiation Medicine, was not properly researching the effects of radiation contamination, particularly on food, from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. The Institute supported a Belarusian policy that removed restrictions on contaminated food, leaving citizens to take their own precautions to avoid possible health risks.

Dr. Bandazhevsky's wife, who is also a physician, found her husband to be severely depressed. She wrote letters of appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. In the letter she stated that when she visited her husband, she could hardly recognize him. She wrote of his frustrations at being in jail and punished for his scientific work:

"He told me that his teeth were crumbling, and that he was suffering from constant headaches. I am a physician, and I could well see that I had a sick man in front of me, a man who, due to the efforts of his adversaries, had lost all confidence in himself. He did not even believe any more in what had been sacred to him: his scientific work on the Chernobyl related problems. He had become indifferent to all of this, it frightened him and appeared threatening to him. He told me several times that, when released, he would never again do any scientific research: 'I will never again touch this science, linked to radiation.' When I asked him how he could betray his cause and let everything go, he responded: 'I am afraid for our children.'"

The full text of Galina's letter is available at: http://shr.aaas.org/aaashran/csfrlets.php?cl_id=82

Dr. Bandazhevsky has exhausted almost all appeal processes available to him in Belarus. The only domestic recourse is a presidential pardon. Dr. Bandazhevsky's lawyers are preparing an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

(Sources of information for this alert include: Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights-USA.)

RELEVANT HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

• Article 9(1): Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.
• Article 19(1): Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

• Article 12: (1): The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. (2): The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for: (c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases; (d) The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.

The Human Rights Defenders Declaration

• Article 9: To the same end, everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, inter alia: (c) To offer and provide professionally qualified legal assistance or other relevant advice and assistance in defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.

UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners

• Article 22(2): Sick prisoners who require specialist treatment shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals. Where hospital facilities are provided in an institution, their equipment, furnishings and pharmaceutical supplies shall be proper for the medical care and treatment of sick prisoners, and there shall be a staff of suitable trained officers.
• Article 22(1): At every institution there shall be available the services of at least one qualified medical officer who should have some knowledge of psychiatry. The medical services should be organized in close relationship to the general health administration of the community or nation. They shall include a psychiatric service for the diagnosis and, in proper cases, the treatment of states of mental abnormality.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
• Article 09: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telegrams, faxes, or emails:

• Expressing your concern about the deterioration of Dr. Bandazhevsky's health;
• Urging the authorities to provide him with appropriate medical care in accordance with articles 22 (1) and 22 (2) of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which state: "At every institution there shall be available the services of at least one qualified medical officer who should have some knowledge of psychiatry. The medical services should be organized in close relationship to the general health administration of the community or nation. They shall include a psychiatric service for the diagnosis and, in proper cases, the treatment of states of mental abnormality" and "Sick prisoners who require specialist treatment shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civic hospital;"
• Requesting that the government review the case and grant a full and unconditional pardon to Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky because the charges of bribery appear to be unfounded as the individual who initially made the allegations has since withdrawn the statements and independent observers have stated that no material evidence was introduced during the trial to support the charge of bribery; and
• Express concern that, without evidence to support the conviction on bribery charges, it appears that Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky is being targeted because of his criticism of the government's health policies.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

His Excellency Aleksandr Lukashenko
President of the Republic of Belarus
Office of the President
Respublika Belarus
220016 g. Minsk
Ul. Karla Marksa, 38
Administratsia Prezidenta
BELARUS
Fax: (011) 375 172 26 06 10
Salutation: Your Excellency:

Viktor Golovanov
Minister of Justice of the Republic of Belarus
Respublika Belarus
220084 g. Minsk
ul. Kollektornaya, 10
Ministerstvo yustitsii Respubliki
Belarus
Fax: (011) 375 172 20 96 84
Salutation: Dear Mr. Minister:

Mikhail Khvostov
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus
Respublika Belarus
220030 g. Minsk
Ul. Lenina, 19
Ministerstvo inostrannykkh del Respubliki Belarus
BELARUS
Fax: (011) 375 172 27 45 21
Salutation: Dear Mr. Minister

COPIES SENT TO:

His Excellency Sergei A. Rachkov
Interim Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus
Embassy of the Republic of Belarus
1619 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009
Fax: 1 (202) 986-1805
Salutation: Dear Mr. Ambassador

Please send copies of your appeals, and any responses you may receive, or direct any questions you may have to Victoria Baxter, AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, 1200 New York Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20005; tel. 202-326-6797; email vbaxter@aaas.org; or fax 202-289-4950.

The keys to effective appeals are to be courteous and respectful, accurate and precise, impartial in approach, and as specific as possible regarding the alleged violation and the international human rights standards and instruments that apply to the situation. Reference to your scientific organization and professional affiliation is always helpful.

To ensure that appeals are current and credible, please do not continue to write appeals on this case after 90 days from the date of the posting unless an update has been issued.

To verify the contents of this alert and/or the electronic signature, please download the signed file for this alert along with the Program's PGP Public Key.

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