The International Committee for the Investigation of Torture in Belarus presents a new investigation focusing on systemic human rights violations, torture, and the use of slave labor in Penal Colony No. 3 (Vitebsk region), known as “Vitba.”
The team of documentarians, analysts, and human rights defenders focused on men’s Penal Colony No. 3 “Vitba.” This specialized institution is unique in that it holds convicted former employees of internal affairs agencies, courts, and other law enforcement bodies. The investigation is based on detailed testimony from former prisoners, offering a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of this specific facility.
The collected eyewitness accounts helped reconstruct a detailed picture of internal life at “Vitba” and exposed the unwritten rules operating between the administration and convicted former security officials.
The investigation sheds light on the hidden mechanisms of the Belarusian penitentiary system, its selectivity, and how the punitive apparatus adapts its methods when dealing with representatives of its own system.
The Committee hopes that the findings regarding PC No. 3 “Vitba” will expand the expert community’s understanding of the true state of affairs in the country’s closed institutions and serve as a reliable foundation for future human rights work.
Download