Belarusian Political Prisoners Get Special Treatment

In addition to sending their political opponents to prisons for years, Belarusian authorities make sure they get “special treatment” there. Today 12 political prisoners serve their sentences. Most of them remain incarcerated in disciplinary cells or stricter regime. Last year Mikalaj Autukhovich even had to cut his wrists to make the prison administration stop provocations against him.

Information that comes from prisons clearly shows that the prison administrations constantly create problems for the “prisoners of conscience”. The authorities try to make political prisoners write personal pleas for pardon in Alexander Lukashenka’s name.

Release of political prisoners remains a dilemma for Belarusian and international community. Lukashenka is open about his readiness to release them after certain concessions or financial aid from the West.

Who are Belarusian Political Prisoners?

Today Belarusian human rights centre “Viasna” considers 12 people as political prisoners in Belarus at present moment. Among them there are five anarchists, who are not broadly recognised as political prisoners. However, the human rights defenders think that “actions of these persons contain traits of an offence, but its qualification is unfair and the imposed penalty is excessive”.

At the same time, there is no real offences in other political cases which have been in fact made up. Therefore, we can say that there are “seven plus five” political prisoners in Belarus at the moment:

Mikalaj Statkievich, the ex-presidential candidate at the election-2010. Partyzanski district court of Minsk decided that Mikalaj Statkievich organised mass riots on 19 December 2010 and put him in prison for six years. Later, the court decided to har and sent his to serve his sentence in a closed prison.

Mikalaj Autukhovich, an entrepreneur. The Supreme Court sentenced Autukhovich for illegal storage of cartridges for the gun to five years and two months of imprisonment. Later, the court changed the confinement conditions for stricter ones. Autukhovich’s case stands out as an obvious proof of the authorities’ abilities to use any minor excuse.

Paviel Seviaryniec, leader of the Belarusian Christian Democracy. The Zavodzki district court of Minsk resolved that Seviaryniec organised and prepared actions which severely violated the public order. The court made a sentence – three years of restrict of freedom. Paviel Seviaryniec stays the only political prisoner who is serving punishment not in prison.

Zmicier Dashkievich, Chairman of the Young Front. The Maskouski district court of Minsk sentenced him to two years of imprisonment allegedly for “malicious hooliganism”. The case is absurd as the authorities accused him and Eduard Lobau of beating two men, who even never appeared in court. They gave evidence from the neighbouring room. Later, the court added eight months to the term of imprisonment for Dashkievich for “disobedience to the demands of the correctional colony’s administration” and transferred him to a closed prison.

Eduard Lobau, Young Front activist. According to the court’s resolution, he conducted "especially malicious hooliganism", unlike Dashkievich, and got four years of imprisonment.

Alies Bialiacki, Chairman of the human rights centre “Viasna”. The court sentenced him to four and a half years of imprisonment with property confiscation. The reason for the trial was the official information provided by Poland and Lithuania. The documents confirmed that Ales Bialiacki received money for human rights activity from the West.

Vasil Parfiankou was sentenced to the punishment in the form of six months of arrest for “breaking the conditions of the preventive control”. Before this, Vasil was sentenced for the Square events and pardoned by the president’s decree afterwards.

Anarchists Mikalaj Dziadok, Ihar Alinievich, Aliaksandr Franckievich, Jauhien Vaskovich and Arciom Prakapienka were sentenced in 2011 and got three-eight years of imprisonment. Some consider them political prisoners, others not.

The case of Dashkievich

The Young Front leader Zmicier Dashkievich remains the most persecuted politician in Belarus. He had been charged and sentenced four times already.

Belarus Digest discussed with Dashkievich’s fiancee Nasta Palazhanka what the life behind the bars feels like. Nasta has not had a single meeting with Zmicier in prison and they still cannot get married. For almost two years, prison authorities claim that they cannot find Dashkievich’s passport. Dashkievich needs a passport to register his marriage.

All Palazhanka knows she gets from Dashkievich’s letters or from his lawyer. She says that cold overcrowded cells make the present-day prison reality. Dashkievich used to do many push-ups in order to get warm before going to sleep. The body temperature raised and he managed to get some sleep this way. He had to do several sets of exercises during the night.

While Norwegian terrorist Andrers Breivik in Norway complains that his coffee is served not hot enough and he could not use his notebook, Belarusian prisoners are not allowed even to use spoons. They have to stir tea in a mug with a toothbrush case or a toothpaste tube.

Zmicier Dashkievich describes these and other details of his prison life in his open letter to the General Public Prosecutor and summarises that any Belarusian prison tends to “humiliate and morally destroy a person, to force a human being forget that he is a human being”. Zmicier already paid for that letter.

The “Young Front” leader disappeared after the court trial which resolved to send Zmicier to a closed prison until the end of his term. The Belarusian authorities provided no information on Dashkievich’s whereabouts to either relatives, his fiancé Nasta or his lawyer.

The authorities also did not send Zmicier’s letters during this time. Prison administration not only reads Zmicier’s letters, they also commit small tricks such as crossing out a white-red-white flag painted on the envelope.

People from both Belarus and abroad keep sending many letters of support, but it remains unclear whether all of them reach the addressee. For instance, right after the December 2010 crackdown of the opposition the authorities totally isolated political prisoners from the outer world and did not pass letters to them.

Another new feature is that prison authorities prohibit other arrestees to talk with the political prisoners. The political prisoners exist in isolation even though there are people around them. Therefore, Palazhanka says, it is very important to send letters of support. They remain almost the only opportunity to contact with the outer world for the political prisoners.

Lukashenka’s interests and political prisoners

Why do the authorities keep political prisoners locked? Lukashenka has two geopolitical goals. First, to intimidate opponents inside the country. Second, to preserve the geopolitical equilibrium. He cannot fulfil these two aims at the same time and hesitates with regard to his priorities.

The persistence of the authorities in forcing the political prisoners to write pleas for pardon clearly shows that Lukashenka is willing to get rid of the prisoners of conscience. Political prisoners remain the only obstacle for his geopolitical flexibility. On the other side, Lukashenka does not want to release political prisoners without certain conditions as it may be considered his weakness.

The economic problems remain the only opportunity for the political prisoners’ release. In the situation when the Belarusian economy is devastating, the authorities are seeking understanding with the West even through Vatican. The European Union does not trust Lukashenka anymore. Anyway, negotiations behind the scene are the only way out.

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