Alena Dzmitryyeuna Pyrkh

Number of repressed:

437

Birthday:

4 january 1978

Penal Colony No. 4, Department of Correctional Institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Gomel Region and the City of Gomel. Employee of the penal department. Assistant to the duty assistant to the warden of the penal colony. Elena Dmitrievna Pyrkh participated in the persecution of political prisoners. All provocations by the penal institution administration took place under her supervision. She was present during all searches of the political prisoners' cells, displaying aggression, threatening, and insulting female prisoners. Prohibited items, usually pills or needles, were planted in the cells of women who, in the administration's opinion, needed punishment, and Pyrkh then "found" them. She then took the prisoner to the penal department and filed a report. Another form of psychological pressure was "fire safety drills," when Pyrkh would suddenly appear in the unit and demand that all prisoners "take out" their belongings in an organized manner within 10 minutes. If the prisoners failed to complete this task within the allotted time, the process would begin again. Pyrkh would shout, insult, and humiliate the prisoners. If she didn't like something, she would force the entire unit to stand in the sun, rain, or cold for several hours, during which time they would be required to read the prison rules. She often filed reports on political prisoners and demanded stricter conditions for them at commission meetings, including insisting on solitary confinement in place of a reprimand, deprivation of visits, parcel delivery, and so on at punishment commissions. These actions directly indicate complicity with the Lukashenko regime's repressive policies against those who do not support the government and violate prisoners' rights to humane treatment.