Rights group: Kaleśnikava health deteorated in prison

May 22, BPN. According to a Belarusian human rights group, political prisoner Maryja Kaleśnikava is having health problems in a penal colony in Homiel.

Mayday Team said Kaleśnikava does not work because of her health and was helped out during a march about a month ago.

“She has been held in solitary confinement recently. Before that, she was regularly sent to a punishment cell,” the group said. “But Maryja has not lost her spirits. She still wears red lipstick, her ‘trademark’ sign of tenacity and optimism.”

Kaleśnikava had emergency surgery for peritonitis, a complication of a perforated ulcer, in November. She was taken to a hospital in Homiel in serious condition.

Information about her condition has been scarce because of the information blockade by the penal colony.

Kaleśnikava was a speaker for presidential hopeful Viktar Babaryka. After his detention, she joined forces with Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja and Vieranika Capkała, wives of other presidential contenders.

She was detained on September 7, 2020, and taken to the Ukrainian border the next night. She refused to leave Belarus and tore up her passport. She was then taken to a detention center and sentenced to 11 years in prison on September 6, 2021, for conspiracy to seize power unconstitutionally.