Update on CO Gabby Wolf

["Sergeiy Sandler" <sergeiy at bgumail.bgu.ac.il>]

10 Apr. 2001

Dear Friends,

Yesterday Gabby Wolf was visited in prison by his mother and his friend and
fellow CO Lotahn Raz. He was in good spirit and looked alright (even his
hair was not yet cut by the prison barber). During the visit he mentioned
some interesting details about his conditions of imprisonment.

First of all, he is still held in the isolation ward (to avoid
misunderstanding - staying in the isolation ward is not the same as solitary
confinement. There are two or three people per cell there, but the whole
compound is isolated from the rest of the prison and from open air. Prison
guards there feel free to do whatever they like to prisoners, often
including abuse).

Apparently, his conditions of imprisonment until last Friday were even more
restrictive than we thought. He was not allowed to leave his cell at all,
not even for meals (which were brought to the cell). All the pens and
pencils he brought with him to prison were taken away from him (which
contradicts prison regulations), so he was not only denied the possibility
of writing mail, but of writing at all. One of the prison guards promised to
give him back one pen last evening, but we do not know if he kept this
promise or not. All these conditions are significantly worse than normal,
even for prisoners of the isolation ward.

His conditions of imprisonment changed to the better on Friday. As you
remember, he was allowed to call his mother. Shortly afterwards he was moved
to another cell (he previously was kept with a new immigrant from Russia,
with whom he had no common language to communicate in). Since then he was
also taken out of his cell for meals, etc., like all other prisoners in the
ward. Finally, yesterday morning, he was finally allowed to take his first
shower in over a week.

He reported that all these improvements had something to do with a letter
from Norway received at the prison, so he was told by the guards. This is an
excellent opportunity to thank all of you, in Norway and elsewhere, for
taking part in this effort on Gabby's behalf. As you see, your work is not
done in vain.


Best wishes,

Sergeiy Sandler
COI & New Profile