{"id":155499,"date":"2025-09-15T13:57:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T10:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/155499\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:35:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:35:32","slug":"torture-factory-some-prisoners-freed-statkievic-challenges-the-system","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/155499\/","title":{"rendered":"Torture factory: some prisoners freed, Statkievi\u010d challenges the system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Upon his release, trade union leader Alaksandar Jara\u0161uk described \u0160k\u0142o\u016d\u2019s Penal Colony No. 17\u2014where he had been serving his sentence\u2014as a \u201ctorture factory.\u201d<\/em> Other former political prisoners echoed his words, recounting mistreatment and horrific conditions during a press conference in Vilnius on September 12.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n (Hasan Almasi \/ unsplash.com)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many of those pardoned last week appeared much older, with some having lost dozens of kilograms. Yet none of them looked broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jara\u0161uk said that after their release, they were escorted out of Belarus by security officials wearing face masks to conceal their identities. \u201cWho are the masters in this country? If they are, why are they so afraid? They know that sooner or later they will be held accountable for everything. . . . We will return to Belarus because we are the real masters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dishonorable regime<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe world still does not understand the scale of what is happening in Belarus\u2014the human rights violations, the abuse, and the violence of every kind: psychological, physical, and sexual,\u201d said opposition activist Miko\u0142a Dziadok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former political prisoners, who were marked with yellow labels on their chests when serving their sentences, described torture-like conditions. They spoke of being locked in freezing punishment cells, deprived of visits with loved ones and restricted from buying commissary goods. Many also had their sentences extended for allegedly breaking prison rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf people from the civilized world saw what that cell was like, they would think they were in the Middle Ages,\u201d Dziadok said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaksandar Mancevi\u010d, former editor-in-chief of Rehijanalnaja Hazeta<\/em>, urged the international community to demand the release of Vac\u0142a\u016d Are\u0161ka, a trade union activist who lost his sight in prison. \u201cWhen I led him by the hand to the canteen, he asked: \u2018Is there the Sun in the sky today or not?\u2019 . . . At night he gets out of bed and walks to the bathroom down the long corridor, stumbling, falling, bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

D\u017amitryj Ku\u010duk, former chairman of the outlawed Belarusian Greens Party, said he was placed at the very bottom of the prison hierarchy, enduring harassment, assault and isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 13 of the 52 pardoned prisoners were deported from Belarus without passports. Dziadok recalled how a security officer tore his passport to pieces before his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Lithuania agreed to shelter all the deportees, their testimonies reveal the presence of sadistic wardens whose actions, they stressed, cannot be forgiven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deportation as violence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some of the released prisoners said they never wanted to leave Belarus, but authorities gave them no choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka has repeatedly claimed he could \u201chand all the imprisoned opponents over to the Americans,\u201d describing them as \u201cbandits\u201d<\/em> who have no place in Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He insists on deportation, fearing that opposition leaders might attempt another uprising. He also hopes that exile will weaken the already fragmented opposition abroad. Above all, he seeks to make life as difficult as possible for his enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opposition leader \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja said her team has contacted Washington to ensure that those granted pardons are given the choice to remain in Belarus. She also called for an immediate end to political repression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That demand, however, is particularly difficult to achieve. After narrowly surviving the 2020 uprising, \u0141uka\u0161enka knows that without repression he could quickly lose power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statkievi\u010d refuses deportation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mika\u0142aj Statkievi\u010d, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaja Hramada), was among the 52 dissidents pardoned on September 11, following \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s meeting with John Coale, US deputy special envoy to Ukraine. On the same day, all the released prisoners were deported to Lithuania\u2014except Statkievi\u010d, who refused to leave Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCTV footage confirmed that he remained at the Kamienny \u0141oh border crossing for several hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Na\u0161a Niva<\/em>, he was then returned to the penal colony in H\u0142ybokaje, Viciebsk region, where he had been serving a 14-year sentence in a politically motivated case. For the past two and a half years, he had been held incommunicado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siarhiej Spary\u0161, a Narodnaja Hramada member freed the same day, said he was not worried about the 69-year-old leader\u2019s morale, but feared for his health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough he looks fit, he suffers from serious arrhythmia. At times he struggles even to walk,\u201d Spary\u0161 said. \u201cHe was sent six times to the internal prison and six times to solitary confinement. Altogether, he spent two years and seven months in isolation. This is essentially murder. He contracted COVID three times, suffered a heart attack, had pneumonia once, and has lived with chronic bronchitis since the 1990s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cichano\u016dskaja has appealed to the international community to demand his release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka, no doubt, wants to keep his most outspoken critic behind bars. Yet Statkievi\u010d\u2019s continued imprisonment after being pardoned may complicate future negotiations with Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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