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In recent days, independent Belarusian media published a letter in which a political prisoner, Katsiaryna Novikava, describes the terrible conditions of her detention and that of many other political prisoners in Belarusian prisons. Given the difficulty in getting her information out of her prison, Novikava had to send it secretly, writing it on a piece of toilet paper.
Belarus is an Eastern European country governed for thirty years in an authoritarian manner by the dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In 2020 his victory in elections characterized by serious fraud, which had given him a sixth consecutive mandate, had provoked large and well-attended protests: in the subsequent repression more than 35 thousand people were arrested and imprisoned on political charges for opposing Lukashenko . There are currently 1,385 political prisoners in Belarus, a country of around 9 million people, according to the human rights group Viasna.
Novikava participated in the protests. She was arrested in June 2023 and charged with seven different crimes, including “incitement to hatred” and “interference in the activity of an employee of the Ministry of the Interior”. She was sentenced to six years and six months in prison.
In his letter, delivered to the independent Belarusian channel Belsat, Novikava talks about the beatings she suffered in various detention centers. She says she was beaten “by the entire barracks” because of her opposition to the regime. She also describes the lack of medical care: she says that after falling from a bunk bed, the head wound she sustained was photographed by the officers, who however did nothing to treat her.
Novikava also wrote about the injustices of the judicial system: both the judge who sentenced her and the lawyer who was supposed to defend her were, according to Novikava, clearly supporters of Lukashenko and had repeatedly humiliated her. She then said that most of the letters sent to her would not be delivered to her in prison, and that “even her drawings are prohibited”. The woman also says that she was arrested in her nightgown and was not allowed to change until her family was allowed to give her some more clothes.
Pavel Sapelka, a lawyer who works with Viasna, told ad Associated Press that Novikava’s letter demonstrates “the catastrophic situation of political prisoners in Belarusian prisons.” According to Sapelka, the Belarusian authorities are aware that the abuse, beatings, denial of medical care and informational isolation, which are systematic in the country’s penitentiary system, are a form of torture against prisoners.
Among the political prisoners are the founder of Viasna himself, Ales Bialiatski, who in 2022 was among the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. Some opponents have been made to disappear, to the point that their lives are feared. For example, there has been no news of Maria Kolesnikova, one of the three opposition leaders, arrested in 2020 for over a year: her lawyers last received a letter from her on 14 February 2023, and since then she has not there have been multiple contacts. No one knows where she is, nor what her state of health is.
Other dissidents have died in prison: among them Igor Lednik, a famous journalist and politician arrested in 2020 for allegedly “defaming” Lukashenko in one of his articles. He died in February, in prison, and the authorities do not want to reveal the cause of death.
– Read also: Lukashenko crushed Belarus
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