February 6, Pozirk. Palina Šarenda-Panasiuk, a former political prisoner evacuated from Belarus, has told journalists in Vilnius about dreadful conditions at Penal Colony No. 24 in the Homiel region’s Rečyca district, where she served her sentence.
Šarenda-Panasiuk, who was greeted at a Vilnius railway station, called on supporters to remember all people remaining at the colony, which she called a “slaughterhouse.”
“Volha Majorava is still there. Alena Hnaŭk is still there. Viktoryja Kulša is still there. The situation of these people is catastrophic. All of them are in a punishment cell or an internal prison [PKT],” she said.
According to the activist, Kulša’s kidneys may have failed after she held long hunger strikes, refusing food and water. “She cut her wrists in a punishment cell and rejected medical help,” she said.
Šarenda-Panasiuk described the punishment cell as a torture chamber. She said she had walked only eight days in 2023, and the rest of the time she was in a punishment cell or the PKT.
Earlier today, BySol co-founder Andrej Stryžak announced that Šarenda-Panasiuk had been evacuated from Belarus after her release.
Šarenda-Panasiuk was in detention since January 3, 2021.
Six months after her arrest, a Brest court sentenced her to two years in prison for violence against a police officer and insults against the head of state and an official.
Furthermore, in April 2022, October 2023 and October 2024 she was found guilty of disobeying prison authorities. Judges additionally sentenced her to three years and one day behind bars. She has served her sentence in full.
