Wife Of General Staff Heroic Captain: Dzianis Believes Army Must Not Fight Its People

Friends, relatives and, most surprisingly, complete strangers have supported the family.

On May 14, the Supreme Court made a harsh sentence for the political prisoner: ex-captain of the General Staff Dzianis Urad received 18 years in jail for treason. The man photographed a letter from the Minister of the Interior to the Minister of Defense, and sent it to one of the Telegram channels. The wife of the convict told tut.by why he took such a step.

The detention of Dzianis Urad was reported in the film of the ONT TV channel, where they said that the captain of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, being on duty at a special communications post on March 14, photographed a secret letter from the Minister of Internal Affairs to the Minister of Defense and “sent it to the Polish Telegram channel”. The letter refers to the involvement of military personnel to defend the objects that are subject to state protection during unauthorized mass events.

Dzianis is 29 years old, he is a native of a small village of Rasony in the Vitsebsk region. In 2014 he graduated from the Military Academy and joined the General Staff.

- In the 11th grade, the military came to Dzianis's school, agitated to join them, - says his wife Iryna. - Dzianis was excited about this idea, and entered the Military Academy. He studied well, in 2014 he was assigned to the General Staff, where he served until his arrest.

The family discussed the political situation, as Iryna recalls, “everyone hoped for a change”.

“Perhaps now we have suffered for this,” she says. “Dzianis, of course, knew what was happening in the country, he saw secret documents at work. I think he simply could not stand it, perhaps he did it as he got emotional (he sent a snapshot of the document to the Telegram channel - edit.). Dzianis believed that the army should not fight with its people, on the contrary, the army should defend its people, and not go against them.

Iryna notes that her husband did not tell the family that he had sent a photo of the document to the Telegram channel:

- It was his decision. I don't think he wanted anyone else to get hurt. They detained him on March 15, on Monday. He had a day off after duty, they called from work and told him to come urgently. I think he understood straightaway why there was such a fuss. He never returned home. And at night they came to us with a search. The operative officers behaved politely, they even tried not to wake up the child (the spouses are raising a son, who is almost 4 years old - edit).

The case of Dzianis Urad was handled by the KGB, and accordingly, he is held in custody in their pre-trial detention center. Human rights activists recognized Dzianis as a political prisoner.

- My husband did not complain about the pressure while the investigation was underway, - says Iryna. - But when the investigation was over, he was transferred to the fifth cell, where there is no sleeping place for him, they allocated a board, which they put on the floor, and this is where he sleeps at night.

According to his wife, Dzianis writes letters to her every day, but they do not reach her so often.

“At first it was very difficult to read them,” recalls the interlocutor. “He wrote such hard things like he had no idea how he would live on, how he would survive the separation from his son, because they were very close. And the thought that he will not see how the child is growing is the most difficult for him.

Iryna saw Dzianis after his arrest only once, only a few minutes at the announcement of the sentence in the Supreme Court. The case was heard behind closed doors, the sentence immediately entered into force, and is not subject to appeal on appeal.

“Of course, we were not allowed to talk, we could only look at each other,” she says. “In the last letters, my husband foresaw that he would have a very long term, because he already knew how his case was “puffed up” on TV. Now he is in the mood that nothing will change, in the cell they get only the news they broadcast on state TV. Moreover, he has such an article that he cannot appeal against the sentence, and he is not subject to parole either.

Iryna says that friends, relatives and, most surprisingly, complete strangers have supported the family:

- I am glad that our Belarusian people are so kind-hearted. People's support is the most precious thing we have now.