Elena Dmitrievna Pyrkh

Elena Dmitrievna Pyrkh

Pyrkh Elena Dmitrievna participated in the persecution of political prisoners. All provocations by the administration of the correctional facility took place under her control. She was present at all searches in the cells of political prisoners, while displaying aggression, threatening and insulting female prisoners. Forbidden objects, usually pills or needles, were planted in the cells of women who, in the opinion of the administration, needed to be punished, which Pyrkh then "found". After that, she took the prisoner to the regime department and wrote a report. Another form of psychological pressure was "fire safety drills", when Pyrkh suddenly came to the detachment and demanded that all prisoners "take out" their things in an organized manner within 10 minutes. If the prisoners did not manage to complete this task within the specified time, everything started over again. Pyrkh shouted, insulted and humiliated the prisoners. If she didn't like something, she could make the entire unit stand in the sun, rain or cold for several hours, during which time people had to read the internal regulations. She often wrote reports on political prisoners, demanded that the regime for them be strengthened at commissions, including at commissions on penalties, insisted on placing them in a punishment cell instead of a reprimand, deprivation of a visit, a parcel, and so on. These actions directly indicate assistance to the repressive policy of the Lukashenko regime in relation to those who do not support the government and violate the rights of prisoners to humane treatment.