Ales Bialiatski told why human rights defenders decided not to leave the country at the beginning of the peak of repressions

— Indeed, we were in the thick of events in 2020 and 2021, though not in the front ranks, but as for helping the repressed, gathering information, disseminating information — "Viasna" did everything to collect information about people who were then massively beaten and imprisoned, who disappeared without a trace, and about their fates.

We sought opportunities for help. And at first, when the authorities' blow fell on wide circles of activists, political activists, we were somehow unnoticed: it was obvious that the KGB and the police simply didn't have enough resources for everyone. But in 2021, as they gradually expanded the scope of repressions, it became clear that we too were under close scrutiny.

In September 2020, Marfa Rabkova, a member of "Viasna," was arrested. In January 2021, the first searches took place at the homes of our "Viasna" friends and at "Viasna" offices. And after that, it became clear that repressions could soon be directed personally against those who had worked for "Viasna" for a very long time, who were well-known, who gave interviews, who worked in various directions of human rights activity in Belarus.

My colleagues traveled abroad for a conference at that time, and when they returned to Belarus in July 2021, they were stopped at the border, and there was a very detailed search. This was another alarming call, after which we met with Uladz Labkovich and Valiantsin Stefanovich. I remind you, it was the time of COVID. I remember now, as if it were today, how we sat in different corners of the room and talked about our future plans, about what might happen.

And I said then that it was inappropriate for me, as the head of an organization already suffering from repressions — and our volunteers and Marfa Rabkova were already in prison then — to flee into emigration, to leave, to depart from Belarus, because it would not look quite right. Especially since the prominence of our organization, "Viasna," was undoubtedly taken into account by both the Belarusian authorities and the international community.

We had to withstand this blow and be with the victims of political repressions, and with the wide circle of people who continued to resist; we had to help, we helped in Belarus until the last minute, while being there, those who were already imprisoned. This was assistance of various kinds: parcels to prisons, moral support for families, gathering information, presence at trials, monitoring these political trials. We were doing this work, we discussed the question of whether to leave and decided — no, we stay.

And literally a couple of days after this discussion, arrests took place, we and a number of our "Viasna" friends were detained. There were mass searches, more than 120 searches in total across Belarus, related to "Viasna". These included regional "Viasna" offices, Minsk offices, and our apartments, which were raided by the police — operatives conducted these searches, it was very large-scale, widespread.

The three of us remained in the pre-trial detention center in Valadarka — Uladz Labkovich, Valiantsin Stefanovich, and I. For some time, Uladz Labkovich's wife was also there, but after 10 days, thank God, she was released, and the three of us remained in that situation, along with hundreds of other political prisoners who were in Belarus at that time.

Morally, I was ready; for me, it was déjà vu, as if I had returned, rewinding 8 years, to the time when I was sitting in Valadarka. In 2021, I found myself there again, only now in neighboring "cells," in neighboring chambers.

There was a feeling that everything here was familiar, that the machine had turned back a piece of life, and you had returned to these not quite, I would say, normal conditions. Because it's always overcrowded there, always problems with medicine, all sorts of other problems. I returned to this difficult situation.

We stayed, although it's another matter that perhaps we didn't expect, didn't anticipate, that our imprisonment would be so long. From the moment of arrest to the moment of my and Uladz Labkovich's release, which occurred on December 13, 2025, 4 years and 5 months passed, roughly 4 and a half years. And Valiantsin Stefanovich is still imprisoned; for him, this prison counter, the timer, has not stopped, it continues to tick day after day, the imprisonment continues.

What influenced such a long, prolonged imprisonment — our sentences were quite long, I was given 10 years of imprisonment, Valiantsin — 9, Uladz — 7 years? Undoubtedly, the situation with the war in Ukraine influenced it, which suddenly pushed both the theme and the problems of Belarus into the background, and also the fact that we effectively entered a state of martial law. Belarus was very heavily involved in this military campaign; there's no need to mention how much Russian military equipment passed through Belarus. The entire war, in general, began from Belarus: Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarusian territory.

And, of course, it's a tragedy that our time in prison is, to some extent, devalued; we became hostages, we became, in a broad sense, one could say, prisoners, which we essentially were until the last day of imprisonment, until our release.

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