"Girls tried to protect her." The story of Natalia Levaya, sentenced for donations, who is preparing to give birth behind bars

On April 2, 2025, ONT aired a report titled "Shadows. The Price of Terror. Who sponsored extremists and what threatens for financing a coup d'état." In it, the authors recounted the persecution of Belarusians who donated money to "extremist" or "terrorist" organizations. Among other things, the report showed operational footage from the interrogation of a young woman named Natalia Levaya.

In the video, Natalia sits silently, while an employee of the Department of Financial Investigations, with a distorted voice, states that a year before her arrest, Natalia was summoned to law enforcement agencies and offered to voluntarily report money or cryptocurrency transfers to "extremist organizations." According to the version voiced by the security forces, Natalia reported 4 such instances, for which she was exempted from criminal liability in accordance with current legislation.

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"However, she did not report 13 other instances of cryptocurrency and money transfers totaling 3800 rubles," the person off-screen reads monotonously.

And he reports that it was still impossible to hide them. DFR employees managed to gain access to Natalia's crypto wallet, despite her deleting both the crypto wallet itself and its access code.

The footage shown in the propaganda program was filmed much earlier than April 2025. The verdict in Natalia Levaya's case — 6 years of imprisonment — was announced by Judge Mikalai Syanko on July 17, 2024. The woman was detained on May 8 of the same year, accused immediately under three articles of the Criminal Code: "Creation of an extremist formation or participation in it," "Financing the activities of an extremist formation," and "Participation or preparation of a citizen of the Republic of Belarus in military actions on the territory of a foreign state without state authorization."

All this happened after Natalia, who had lived and worked in Poland since 2022, decided to return to her homeland in Belarus.

"KGB certificate"

Natalia Levaya is 39 years old, originally from Kobryn. In 2009, she graduated from Brest State University with a degree in "Fine Arts and Folk Craft," working as a 2D artist and production designer in the IT sector. First at Synesis, later at Playtika – a large company developing mobile games. Soon after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Natalia left Belarus for Poland. However, in the spring of 2024, she returned to her homeland. The exact reasons for this decision are unknown.

After the verdict in Natalia Levaya's case was announced, her acquaintance wrote on social media that colleagues had dissuaded the woman from returning to Belarus, but she said that she missed her homeland very much, had already paid a multiple fine for donations, and even had a corresponding paper from the KGB.

"In Poland, she quit her job at a large IT company – decided to return home," Natalia's acquaintance reported. "Colleagues were shocked, tried to dissuade her. She said she had a certificate from the KGB about donations paid in multiple amounts. She was tired without a home. Detained at the border. Given 6 years in a penal colony."

According to human rights defenders, Natalia Levaya was detained at the border crossing.

The "Cyberpartisans" community, with the help of the DIT project and the human rights center "Viasna," citing the Belarusian prosecutor's office, learned that in 2022, Natalia Levaya transferred at least 4400 rubles to bank accounts and virtual wallets of representatives of "extremist formations," including the Kalinouski Regiment.

"A miracle happened"

Last week, Tut.by editor-in-chief Maryna Zolatava, who was released from the Homiel penal colony on December 13, published a post on Facebook describing the difficult conditions for inmates in the Homiel women's penal colony, which they face in winter frosts. From this post, it became known that Natalia Levaya is expecting a child behind bars.

"Most of all, I worry about Natasha Levaya," Zolatava wrote. "A miracle happened: after a visit with her husband, she became pregnant. Before this, the couple had long been unable to have children. Natasha is due to give birth around March. I so wish this would happen under different conditions."

News of the political prisoner's pregnancy quickly spread across information resources and social media. It was also confirmed by other recently released political prisoners.

"The girls tried to protect her and worried about her a lot," one of them wrote. "I dream that Natasha will be home with her baby as soon as possible. It's strange that life sprouted even in such a terrible place."

Information about Natalia Levaya's pregnancy was confirmed in a conversation with "Svaboda" by several women who served sentences in the Homiel women's penal colony. According to them, Natalia's condition is normal, and other inmates support her in everything. Natalia's sentence ends in the spring of 2030. All interlocutors hope that the woman will be released earlier.

Babies behind bars

Children born behind bars in Belarus spend the first years of their lives serving their sentences with their mothers, provided they are not abandoned or transferred to relatives outside. This is determined by the first part of Article 95 of the Criminal Executive Code of Belarus.

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"In correctional facilities where women with children are serving sentences, mothers' and children's homes are organized," it states. "Conditions necessary for the normal life and development of children are created there. Convicted women can place their children up to three years old in such institutions, contact them during their free time without restrictions. They may be allowed to live together with their children."

According to part four of the same Article 95 of the CEC, pregnant women and women breastfeeding infants may receive additional food parcels and transfers. Also, convicted pregnant women have the right to medical assistance during childbirth and in the postpartum period. There is another legal norm that, in practice, according to human rights defenders, is almost never applied. According to Article 93 of the CEC, for pregnant women or women with young children, a deferment of sentence execution is allowed – until the child reaches three years of age.

Pregnant women in the penal colony are placed on medical record just like women at liberty. They are taken to the women's consultation center in Homiel for examinations and tests, and are prescribed enhanced nutrition – 30 grams of butter, eggs, cottage cheese, fruits, and vegetables are added to their daily diet. They are exempted from certain types of public works, such as cleaning toilets.

Incarcerated women are taken to the city maternity hospital in Homiel to give birth. The woman in labor is accompanied by a convoy. Usually, police officers are near the ward, which sometimes frightens ordinary women.

A former political prisoner, who for safety reasons identified herself as Hanna, told "Svaboda" how a woman from her squad, convicted under the "narcotics" Article 328, arrived at the colony pregnant. She recounted that she was constantly taken to the women's consultation center from the pre-trial detention center, and also from the colony for ultrasound examinations and tests. The woman gave birth in the city maternity hospital.

"But the convicted woman was discharged from the hospital literally three days later, and she returned to the colony, while the child was left for a few more weeks in the children's department – allegedly there were some problems," Hanna recounts. "The woman who gave birth was very worried that the baby would be accustomed to artificial feeding, and that she would not be able to breastfeed the child herself."

When the child was discharged, the mother was allowed to be with the infant for some time. But since she was not breastfeeding, she was very quickly sent to work. And after her shift, the woman would spend some time with the child, but returned to the squad to sleep."

Children's home in the colony

The children's home in the Homiel women's correctional colony No. 4 has been operating since 1961; it is designed for 50 children. Over its almost 65 years of existence, more than 2000 children have been kept behind barbed wire there. In the late 1980s, 82 toddlers were raised in the colony's children's home, in the 1990s – an average of 75. Now – about 35.

The children's home in the colony occupies a separate two-story building, with a playground nearby. The walls of the premises were painted by a convicted artist. The building has special rooms for breastfeeding, a medical office, bedrooms, playrooms, many toys. There is also medical equipment. Educators work with the children.

About 20 people work there: a doctor, nurses, a massage therapist, a physical therapist, educators. As reported by state media, in 2019, the Homiel colony introduced a so-called "dormitory" for mothers and infants to live together. When a child is just born, the mother is allowed to be with them. Six months after childbirth, women go to work and must work in the factory. During this time, the children are looked after by educators. They are taken for walks, developed, and even taken to the circus and other entertainment events in the city.

Former political prisoner Alena (the interlocutor's name has been changed) told "Svaboda" how, in the first days of her sentence, walking from the residential building to the factory, she saw a group of small children being led on some excursion by educators.

"I was walking, staring at the ground, thinking about my problems, I looked up – and saw a small child standing slightly apart, I looked again – and there were another dozen children nearby!" the interlocutor recalls. "At first I was in shock – in the colony, it turns out, there are children."

In our squad, there were two women who had toddlers. They went to work at the factory. One was breastfeeding, she was allowed to go feed her child in the morning, before the shift began. At work, she expressed milk, and she was exempted from some mandatory duties and public works. The other woman's child was two years old. After their shift, both went for a walk with their little ones."

Children stay with their mothers in the penal colony until they are three years old. If the mother is still behind bars when her child reaches this age, the child is either handed over to relatives or placed in a city children's home.

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"In the colony, they told a sad and at the same time touching story – about a woman being released with a boy who was about three years old," Alena says. "Already at the colony gate, the child asked: 'Where are we going?' The mother replied: 'Home.' And the son turned around and went back into the colony."

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