Iryna Kazulina: “We had a good time together, better than at home…”

Political prisoner Aljaksandr Kazulin on Tuesday morning ended his three-day appointment with his wife and two daughters.

The family reunion occurred for the first time over the past 10 months since imprisonment.

The first minutes of the meeting were very warm. Loud cries of happiness burst out from the daughters and the wife, who stood at the door waiting impatiently for their beloved father and the husband.

Three days passed very quickly for the Kazulin family. Iryna Kazulina has shared her emotions with the European Radio for Belarus:

“This was a wonderful meeting. It was for the first time over the past ten months when we could sit together with Aljaksandr, hug each other and spend three days as if we were at home.

I want to say it was even better than at home. There were no telephone calls; nobody was in a hurry. That’s why our rendezvous was very romantic.”

[The former chancellor of the Belarus State University and the presidential contender during the March 2006 elections in Belarus, Aljaksandr Kazulin was on July 13, 2006 sentenced to 5.5 years in a general-security prison for “malicious hooliganism and the organization of group actions that violated the public order”. This has been the first long appointment of Kazulin with his family. Every inmate is entitled to having three short-term three-hour long appointments and three long-term three-day long appointments with his family per year. The second long-term appointment is expected to take place in May.]

Aljaksandr Kazulin ended his hunger strike one and a half months ago. The hunger strike lasted 53 days. The former presidential candidate lost almost 40 kg over nearly two months of hunger striking.

The exit from the hunger strike has been very painful. For the meeting, Iryna brought her husband’s favorite dishes, which the family cooked together: fish cutlets, cabbage pies. Daughter Julija baked a cake and a king’s tart, while her sister Alena cooked fish in a special way.

Unfortunately, Aljaksandr Uladzislavavich cannot it everything. According to his wife Iryna, he is not in the best condition. He had started walking outside only three days before the appointment. He had stayed in bed all that time.

“He told us some sad, bitter moments, but he assured us that he had already made it through the most painful part and that he just needed to restore his health further.

This is all very hard. We need to do everything possible to get him out of prison. I don’t think it is ever possible to restore your health behind bars.”

There are speculations that the recent visit by the PACE President to Belarus contributed to making the appointment with the family possible. However, the PACE President himself was not granted permission to meet with Aljaksandr Kazulin.

Kazulin’s wife has refuted these allegations. She said the PACE President’s visit produced no influence on the authorities’ decision to allow the appointment.

The prison officials said she had to wait for so long, because there were many people willing to see their relatives, but the number of appointment rooms was limited. That factor produced long waiting lists.