Yana Palyakova would have marked her 34th birthday

Human rights activist Yana Palyakova would have marked her 34th birthday January 22.

The human rights defender was driven to suicide in March 2009. The complete set of the cruel and mean methods was used against the woman: arrests, tortures, criminal persecution, moral terror. Even the newspaper with the biggest circulation in Belarus, “Belarus Segodnya” (“Sovetskaya Belorussia” and its editor-in-chief Pavel Yakubovich joined the baiting campaign.

Cynically accused of “false denunciation” of a militia officer, who had beaten her, Palyakova was sentenced to two years of restraint of liberty. Her friends say, Palyakova stated somedaysbefore the suicide: “The sentence will never take effect.” Her suicide was not demonstration of weakness or an impulsive thoughtless step. Yana devoted her life to struggle against injustice and didn’t allow the injustice to happen. The sentence didn’t really take effect.