"Guys carried my bags — and immediately went to SHIZO." Babariko recounts how unbearable conditions were created for him in prison

Viktar Babaryka recalls that when he was transferred to the colony, he managed to speak with one of the guards.

"He sadly said that I was being sent to Navapolatsk. From his tone, I understood that Navapolatsk was probably not a very good story."

Babaryka was transported to the colony in a separate box of a prison van. When he got out, two young prisoners offered to help him carry his bags.

"They simply asked if they could help carry the bags, literally for 30-50 meters. As a result, they helped me — and immediately went to SHIZO. Right then and there."

According to Babaryka, later the head of the colony Andrei Palchyk informed him:

"For any help, any attention, or anything similar shown to me, people will be sent to SHIZO. Which was demonstrated right in front of me."

"It doesn't directly threaten life, does it?"

Babaryka notes that the system in the colony was built in such a way that formally proving a violation of rights was almost impossible.

"This Jesuitical system, refined over years, starting from the Soviet Union and the times of the Gulag, is built so that, if you adhere to formal grounds, it's almost impossible to find a loophole to prove they are wrong and are violating your rights."

The former political prisoner recalls two incidents that demonstrate the medics' attitude towards him. The first occurred when he was transferred to a charcoal burning section.

"This is a very harmful thing from the perspective of the lungs. And I have lung problems. I pointed this out. And the doctor said such a phrase: 'But it doesn't directly threaten life, does it?'"

"I said: 'Well, yes, I'll go in and not die immediately.' So, it's allowed. This is a rather cynical view from the mouths of medics," Babaryka recounts.

The second incident occurred during a period of particularly strong pressure, when the political prisoner lost more than 30 kilograms in a month.

"I weighed as much as I did after eighth grade. I was weak. I went to the medics and said: 'Something needs to be done about this.'"

However, as Babaryka recounts, the medics replied that his weight almost met the standards for his height and that he looked relatively normal.

"I said: 'Well, people met standards and survived in German concentration camps too. There were standards there too. Not everyone died of hunger immediately.'"

"You have no newspapers, no radio, no TV, no letters"

A significant part of the interview Babaryka dedicated to the regime of incommunicado — the actual isolation of the prisoner from the outside world. According to him, this regime was created gradually and not necessarily through direct prohibitions.

First of all, the political prisoner was deprived of money. Money transfers did not arrive, and he himself, being in a cell-type facility (PKT), could not work and receive a salary.

"You have no opportunity to subscribe to any newspapers because there's simply no money. (...) You can't buy anything. A source of information, even 'Sovetskaya Belorussiya,' is absent for you."

There was no radio or television in the cell either. Meetings were denied on the basis of regime violations. He also had no opportunity to meet with lawyers: "All six lawyers I had were stripped of their licenses."

Another method of isolation was the absence of correspondence. However, there was no direct prohibition on writing letters. As long as he had envelopes, Babaryka sent a letter every week.

"Every week this letter was taken from me. And that was it. To the question: 'Where are they?' — they say: 'Well, we don't know.' I say: 'And where are my letters?' They say: 'They don't write.'"

Later, as Babaryka recounts, he was dissuaded from writing:

"Once a week, a person comes, takes the notebook, and on perfectly legal grounds says: 'We've taken it for study.' They have the right to study, but it disappears. There is no time limit. A sheet can be studied for an hour, or for 15 years."

As the former political prisoner recalls, he was placed in PKT five times in a row for a period of six months each. And this is despite the fact that the maximum term of detention in PKT was six months, after which the prisoner should have either been released from PKT or, if they were, for example, a malicious violator, transferred to a prison regime.

Books were allowed to be read in the cell, but, according to Babaryka, only one book per week could be issued.

Other prisoners were punished for contact with the former banker.

"It was clearly shown to me, and to all people, that any communication with me was their punishment. And so I simply did not want to put people in a difficult position."

"We have a task to provoke a conflict with you"

Babaryka also spoke about attempts to provoke him into conflicts with other prisoners. Some even warned him about the task they had received.

"I had a period when virtually all the people who were supposed to provoke a conflict with me came and said: 'We have a task to provoke a conflict with you. And there's nothing we can do about it. So let's come up with something.'"

Babaryka recalls how one such provocateur acted.

"He spoke to me very, very loudly, hysterically, in the presence of an officer. The officer came, said: 'Do you have a conflict?' I said: 'I don't have a conflict.' He said: 'Well, you had a loud conversation, so that's a conflict.'"

At the same time, Babaryka emphasizes that he had practically no physical conflicts with other prisoners.

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