Mothers 328: We Continue Our Struggle

The initiator of the hunger strike of the Mothers 328 movement activists, Tatsiana Kaneuskaya, has been hospitalized.

Activist of the Mothers 328 movement Tatsiana Kaneuskaya – the initiator of the hunger strike of mothers of those convicted for drugs was hospitalized in the Homel emergency hospital, Radio Svaboda reports.

"Problems with the gallbladder – cholecystitis – began. These are the consequences of the hunger strike – the doctors told me so. I'm going through a course of treatment," – Kaneuskaya, who has been starving for 15 days, says.

She stresses that women do not stop fighting for changing the criminal legislation as regards "anti-drug" articles. Recently they sent an appeal to Supreme Court Chairman Valiantsin Sukala with a proposal to hold an extraordinary plenum of the Supreme Court to change the judicial practice on the application of Article 328 of the Criminal Code (illegal drug trafficking).

Representatives of the Mothers 328 movement also sent an appeal to Prosecutor General Aliaksandr Kaniuk, in which they reminded about the announced meeting with the relatives of convicts under Article 328. The meeting was planned on May 4, but at the last moment it was postponed for an indefinite period "due to Kaniuk’s urgent business trip."

"The meeting was not canceled, but postponed. We hope that it will take place," – Kaneuskaya says.

In addition, movement activists are making appointments with the "deputies" of the "house of representatives" in order to convey their position to them, and are waiting for the plenary sessions of the "parliament" to consider changes in the criminal legislation.

We remind that Article 328 of the Criminal Code – "Illegal circulation of narcotic drugs" – provides for a penalty of 5 years of restriction of liberty up to 25 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.

On April 27, in protest against the cruelty of the "drug article", activists of the Mothers 328 movement, which unites the relatives of those convicted for the distribution of drugs, started a hunger strike in Kalinkavichy in Homel region and in the village of Vostrau in Minsk region.