Mother of political prisoner Lobau punished for July 3 action

On July 3, Maryna Lobava saw a small part of what her son and other political prisoners have in Belarusian prisons.

Young Front activist Eduard Lobau, who was sentenced to four years in a penal colony in Ivatsevichy, has not written home for almost a month. The mother of the political prisoner, Maryna Lobava, worries something may have happened to him, because correspondence was regular before.

Maryna Lobava and her younger minor son were detained during silent protests at the central railway station on July 3. The woman spent the night in a detention facility in Akrestsin Street and was fined 20 basic units for “disorderly conduct” on July 4.

Maryna Lobava says it was like “looking at what political prisoners go through”. The woman says some police officers were rude, confinement conditions in the detention facility were very bad and courts depended on authorities. Maryna Lobava recalls positive things too. The mother of the political prisoners says about the Maskouski district police department:

“At 11 in the evening, when firework was to begin, we were sitting in a big room. There were 50 of us and we began to clap. Policemen did not know what they should do with us. We have already been detained. They could not punish us more. People were not afraid. It was great!” the woman told Radio Svaboda.