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Released activist describes “medieval” conditions in Belarusian prisons
Dziadok speaking
September 12, Pozirk. Activists and journalists who were released yesterday from Belarusian prisons and deported to Lithuania held a news conference in Vilnius to share their experiences.
Opposition activist Mikoła Dziadok said he was shocked by the scale of repression both in prisons and across Belarus.
“The world at large simply does not yet understand the scale of what is happening in Belarus—the human rights violations, the abuse and the violence of all kinds: psychological, physical and sexual,” he said.
Dziadok described the inhumane conditions of his detention:
“Out of almost five years, I spent a year in a punishment cell. If people from the civilized world saw what that cell was like, they would think they were in the Middle Ages.”
He continued:
“I was in solitary confinement. At night, I would wake up to the voices of grown men howling and calling for their mothers. They suffered terribly; people couldn’t sleep because of the cold. I saw men go insane before my eyes—not metaphorically, but literally. They started hearing voices. No one beat them. Some think torture is only about racks and pincers. Not necessarily. I saw how a person can be driven to madness or death simply by being kept in solitary confinement. The administration manipulates your most basic needs. You will either lose your mind or die—it is only a matter of time. I saw it happen.”
He also emphasized that repression in Belarus goes far beyond prison walls:
“Unfortunately, Belarus is ruled by terror, and human life does not matter. Nonviolent resistance, as in the times of Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, does not work under today’s cannibalistic regime. People are simply exterminated. No one knows the statistics on suicides in our prisons. No one knows the statistics on mental illness. Terrible things are happening.”
Dziadok had been in captivity since November 2020, following his arrest on charges widely regarded as politically motivated.
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