Iryna Khalip: I do not feel as a free person yet

Any former political prisoner can get behind the bars again.

A journalist Iryna Khalip shared such an opinion in an interview to the charter97.org web-site after today’s trial.

“I do not feel as a free person yet. I do not yet understand how it is possible not to check the time at night, do not understand how it is possible to go, for example, to a theater or concert in the evening and know that even if you are back later than 10 p.m., nothing bad will happen. I do not yet understand how I can get on a train or a place and go somewhere without asking someone for permission. De-facto, I was under house arrest all the time like Uladzimir Niakliajeu. If we add the five-month jail term, then we get quite a long term. I would also like to say that a person cannot be free even if the person is not currently under arrest or criminal persecution Remember how people met Parfiankou and Jaromienak, who came from prison as free people. Now Parfiankou is preparing to go to prison again”, - the journalist noted.

She highlighted that we cannot in fact feel free, because the state machine may introduce any moment.

“Dzmitry Dashkievich will soon be released, because his prison term expires, but they will say that the situation has improved because Dashkievich is released. One must not confuse logic. Now the number of political prisoners is again increasing. That I have not been sent to a colony today does not mean that this will not happen in a month or two or in a year on a new criminal case. This does not mean that Uladzimir Niakliajeu will also be released. I still do not believe in any improvement”, - the former political prisoner says.

She added that she did not hope for anything when she went to the court.

“In these years I have been able to develop such an ability – not to expect anything, not to plan anything. Let it be as it will. So far I have plans for the nearest evening. Together with friends we are going to meet and go to some café and not to check the time”, - Iryna Khalip said.

We would remind that the court of Minsk’s Partizan district decided to free the journalist Iryna Khalip from the criminal punishment as the verdict’s postponement expired.

On 16 May 2011 the wife of a former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov was sentenced to two years in prison with a postponement of the punishment for two years.

Photo: euroradio.fm