Babaryka nicknamed Google by other inmates for his vast knowledge

Since November 2023, there's been no information about the former chairman of Belgazprombank, political prisoner Viktar Babaryka. Last fall, one of the prisoners saw him in the corridor of the prison. Belsat recently published the story of another political prisoner who was released from the Navapolatsk colony, where Babaryka is allegedly kept.

"At the beginning of 2024, I received unconfirmed information that Viktar Babaryka was no longer in the colony. Allegedly, people came in masks, without insignia, and took him away. When they were doing it, I wanted to leave the canteen, but everyone was forbidden to leave. We stood there not understanding what was happening. In which direction he was taken, whether he was returned, where he is, no one knew," the man said. In the article he is called Anatol. According to the man, there was a suspicion that Babaryka had been taken from the colony to clean up before the trial of his son, Eduard. But the ex-banker never appeared at the trial. Anatol notes that in the past, a card with the name of the prisoner in the cell hung on each solitary confinement door. As a result, "when you were taken there, you could read who your neighbor was." But after Babaryka was beaten in the spring of 2023, the cards were turned upside down, and "now it's unclear who's in the cell," the former political prisoner says. 

"He was always polite to everyone, always tried to smile and shake hands"

Anatol says that when Babaryka was first brought to the colony, it was forbidden to talk to him. At the same time, the ex-banker himself "knew his worth" and did not give in to pressure.

"When Palchyk [Andrei Palchyk - head of colony No. 1 from 2017 to 2023] passed by, everyone shouted in unison: "Helloo-o-oo!" Babaryka did not even move. <...> At the same time he was very polite and gentle with the other prisoners. He always tried to smile and shake hands. He was a very intelligent and dignified person," says Anatol. According to him, at some point the ban on communication with Babaryka weakened, the prisoners began to actively talk to him. "They immediately called him the local 'Google'. There is a command 'Ok, Google', but in the colony it was 'Ok, Dzmitrych'(Dzmitrych - Babaryka's patronymic -- ed). There was a bank of knowledge in his head," Anatol recalls.
 

It was as if there was an order from above to "tighten the prison regime as much as possible"

Coal production, to which Babaryka was transferred in November 2022, is one of the worst and dirtiest jobs in the prison, says the former political prisoner. And while this production in the colony used to close for the winter, because of Viktar Babaryka it was kept open, and the chain-link fence there was replaced by a continuous metal fence. In addition, there was another innovation. "So that the controllers and guards on the tower were always on standby when he went in and out somewhere, a siren was installed on the gates. And as soon as they opened, it would sound throughout the colony. People in the barracks would wake up and jump up in the middle of the night," Anatol says.

Since February 2023, the attitude towards Babaryka has deteriorated even more. It was as if there was an order from above to "tighten up the prison regime as much as possible". The ex-banker was no longer allowed to have a lawyer. He was endlessly chased around the punishment cell. They made it impossible for him to buy anything in the store. 

In July 2021, the court sentenced Viktar Babaryka to 14 years in prison. He was accused of money laundering and bribery. He did not admit guilt and called the case politically motivated. In his last words in court, he said that he could not confess to a crime he had not committed.