Ales Bialiatski: I brought home 40,000 letters from prison

A meeting with head of Viasna human rights centre Ales Bialiatski and a presentation of his book Mercuric Silver of Life were held in Brest.

The former political prisoner wrote the book in prison. Ales Bialiatski was released after his book had been published.

About 30 people came to the event, Radio Svaboda reports.

Ales Bialiatski said how the book was written:

“The idea to write a book came to me unexpectedly. A colleague asked me to describe my trip to Kyrgyzstan in 2010. It was an ethnic conflict there, clashes and killings. I wrote about it and continued to write letters about the situation in Belarus,” Ales Bialiatski said.

The book contains letters that the human rights defender sent from prison. It describes the several past years of Bialiatski's life and returns readers to the 2010 presidential elections. The book ends with Ales Bialiatski's final statement at the trial on 23 November 2011, when he was sentenced to 4.5 years in a medium security correctional facility for “tax evasion on a large scale”. Bialiatski was released on amnesty on 21 June 2014.

Brest residents bombarded Bialiatski with questions, mainly about his prison life. Ales Bialiatski answered all questions and thanked for letters that people sent to prison. According to him, he brought home about 40,000 letters.

All people at the meeting received books with Ales Bialiatski's autograph.