Mother of political prisoner Alyaksandr Barazenka: “We are proud of our son”

Alena Barazenka, the mother of the political prisoner of the “European Belarus” civil campaign Alyaksandr Barazenka, stated in an interview to Radio Svaboda that from the beginning she supported her son in his social and political activities.

Alena Barazenka’s son is imprisoned for 22 days already, but parents still do not know when the trial will take place, and are extremely worried by spiritual and physical health of Alyaksandr.

“At the moment we are extremely worried by his health and spiritual state. His friends have informed today that Alyaksandr has announced a hunger strike. We do not know for how long he is to stay in prison, and when the court will take place. That is why we worry about his health greatly.

Today we still do not know how he is. On October 30 his father had a meeting with him; Sasha (Alyaksandr) wrote letters to us. It could be said that conditions there are rather good as compared with conditions in Akrestsin Street detention centre. In his last letter he wrote to us that he was transferred to another ward. Maybe it is connected with his hunger strike, we do not know,” Alena Barazenka said.

As said by her, there were ten persons in the previous ward, and nobody knows how many of them are in the new one.

Alena Barazenka has also said that from the beginning she supported her son in his social and political activities.

“It’s true, we supported him. All our family, all our relatives,” the mother of the political prisoner confirms.

She notes that Alyaksandr argued with the schoolmaster about the policies of our state, though he was a good pupil.

“They had different views on the policy pursued by our state. There were so particular problems except minor troubles during exams,” Alena recalls.

However to enter the university Alyaksandr was to go to Poland. He studies in Wroclaw University under Kastus Kalinouski program.

“He got there after participation in a protest rally of students against repeal of benefits. After the rally he was forced to stop studying in the Belarusian State University, Foreign Relations faculty. And then Kastus Kalinouski program helped him to enter Wroclaw University. He studied at the political science faculty there,” Alena Barazenka tells.

As said by her, support of former political prisoners in the Process of Fourteen helps a lot.

“Yes, lots of phone calls are received by us. Sasha receives many letters from his friends and from unknown people. Rallies with a demand to release him are held in the country. I would like to express gratitude to all those who support him in these hard times. He needs this support very much now,” the mother of the political prisoner says.

She couldn’t been able to be present at the action of solidarity with Alyaksandr Barazenka in Pinsk on November 16. She learnt about the rally after it finished.

Alyaksandr Barazenka and his parents support each other by letters.

“We receive letters very often. He tries to support us; he writes everything is alright, for us not to worry. He writes everything will be over and we’ll be together. And we write to him that we are proud of him and support him. Here are a few lines: “Letters are a rescue for me. I do not have enough time to answer all of them. It is very pleasant,” Alena Barazenka quotes a letter.

She does not believe that the trial over Alyaksandr would be just, but she hopes for the best.

“I would like to hope that it would be a just trial. But we do not know, we just hope for justice. We hope that there would be a more tolerant attitude towards him and a milder sentence,” Alena Barazenka says.

Alyaksandr Barazenka’s father, Alyaksandr also hopes for a better future, and calls upon his son to do the same.

“I would like to tell him to hold on. Not everything is lost if we have such people like he and his friends in our country. I hope that there would be sun in our window too, and things will come right,” Alyaksandr Senior says.

Alyaksandr Barazenka is one of the 14 accused in the criminal case opened by the regime after the process rally of market vendors on January 21. He hasn’t been convicted yet. He is charged with organizing mass actions which caused mass disorders.

Persons involved in that case were sentenced to different terms of restriction of freedom without being sent to serve the term in prisons, and to fines. Andrei Kim was sentenced to a year and a half in a colony. He was released in August. For a long time Alyaksandr hadn’t been allowed to read the materials of the criminal case. On October 27 together with his lawyer Paval Sapelka on his own accord he came to investigator Mikhalkevich. There he was given a decree about his arrest which had been signed back in May. And now Alyaksandr Barazenka stays in a remand prison before the trial.