How Belarus security forces try to keep political prisoners in jail indefinitely

27/05/2024 - 17:41

Repression with no end in sight / @rubanau_collage

Repression with no end in sight / @rubanau_collage / @rubanau_collage

Political prisoner Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk served her full sentence, but never left prison on May 21. The woman was transferred to the Homiel pre-trial detention center, where later she was charged for the third time with insubordination to the colony administration, and thus, her prison sentence was renewed.

The regime has carried out such a “trick” more than once, giving more and more terms of imprisonment to Belarusians disloyal to the authorities. Euroradio recalls such cases.

Zmitser Dashkevich

The Young Front activist, who is well known as an active defender of the Kurapaty, was sentenced in the summer of 2022 for participating in a protest on August 23, 2020 to a year and a half in prison. And his wife Nasta for the same case - three years of home imprisonment.

In the middle of last summer, Dashkevich was supposed to be released, but it did not happen. In July 2023, a new criminal case was opened against the activist for “malicious disobedience to the requirements of the administration of a correctional institution,” the Barysau District Court sentenced him to another year in a high-security colony.

Now Zmitser is in correctional colony No. 14 in the Barysau region.

Vasil Dzemidovich

BSU law student Uladzimir Zapolskikh is a victim of the “Zeltzer case”, during which KGB officer Dzmitry Fedasyuk was shot. The guy was charged with several criminal articles, from insulting government officials to organizing riots, and in the fall of 2022 the court sentenced him to 2 years in prison.

In January 2023, the young man was released, but in the spring he was detained again and given another year in prison for his comments.

Uladzimir is serving his sentence in correctional colony No. 11 in Vaukavysk.

Siarhey Ramanau

The man was involved in the anarchist case; he was detained in the fall of 2020. The prosecution was based on cases related to the arson of official cars, the building of the traffic police and the state committee of examinations in the Homiel region. In total, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced Ramanau to 20 years in a maximum security colony.

In the spring of 2023, the Belarusian was tried again - and 11 months were added to his sentence for disobedience to the administration of the Vaukavysk colony, where the “anarchist” was imprisoned.

Today Siarhey Ramanau is in Horki colony No. 9.

Artsiom Anishchuk

Artsiom, who was involved in the case of damaging the car of one of the employees of the Department of Execution of Punishments, was also not immediately released after serving his sentence. In February 2021, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

He was transferred to Mahiliou Colony No. 15, where the man was tortured and beaten. Artsiom was kept in a punishment cell for more than a month. There he was attacked by one of the sick convicts.

The man was supposed to be released at the end of June 2022, having served his entire sentence, but he was not released again, as a new “criminal” was opened for insulting a security officer. In the summer of 2022, the man was sentenced to another year in prison. He was released only at the end of spring last year.

Aliaksandr Sharabaika

The famous bodybuilder from Hlubokaye, Aliaksandr Sharabaika was sentenced to a year and a half in prison in the fall of 2023 for “insulting Lukashenka.” The political prisoner served his sentence in Ivatsevichy colony No. 22.

But the story of persecution did not end there. On May 7, he was again tried for “insults” and “participation in an extremist group.” So far human rights activists have not reported how long the bodybuilder was given, the case is being considered behind closed doors.

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