Things Volha Khizhynkova Spoke About After Her Release
- 21.12.2020, 11:13
- 2,547
First interview with Miss Belarus 2020 at large.
On December 20, Volha Khizhynkova was released after 42 days in jail. She was detained on November 8, being tried for three episodes of her participation in unsanctioned public events. Immediately after her release, tut.by journalist Aliaksandra Kvitkevich, who had previously spent 10 days with her in the same cell, spoke to her about the terrible conditions of her detention.
- Tell me, how are you doing?
- Fine, now I feel very well, I'm among my friends. I had no idea I have so many of them (laughs).
- How have you spent the last three weeks?
- I stayed in a cell with the girls who were in jail under my article, and after you left, they brought in a Russian girl who had been tried for Instagram posts. She had been sentenced to 15 days in jail (this is about the Russian woman who was sharing videos about security guards on Instagram). A week ago, the heating in our cell was turned off, and it was blowing from the window all the time in our cell. They fixed the tap and the toilet, and then they took away our mattresses without explaining it.
We were sleeping on the floor, we were putting blankets on it and wrapping ourselves in our clothes. I was wearing two T-shirts, two socks, three hoodies, everything I had. One woman got cystitis because of that.
- How did they explain your sudden transfer to Zhodzina (we remind that Volha was kept in Akrestsina almost all the time, and a couple of days before her release she was transferred to Zhodzina)?
- Said nothing, just transferred. Compared to Akrestsina, Zhodzina pleasantly surprised me. It is clear that these two facilities have the same strict rules, the only difference is that if you do not violate them in Zhodzina, they do not bother you or hurt you.
- You're not going to leave the country, are you?
- I don't want to. I want to live here, I have a lot of friends here, I had no idea how many I have. I don't even think about it, I love my country, I want to live and work here.
