Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, an Activist of European Belarus, Was Sentenced to Two Years in Prison

She pleaded not guilty.

According to the website of the Belsat TV channel, in Brest, judge Yauhen Bregan sentenced the activist of European Belarus Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk to two years in prison.

The prosecutor was Pavel Krupenich.

Palina, who has been in jail since January 3, does not admit her guilt and calls herself captured; she also does not accept the investigation and the court.

The Brest activist was charged in three criminal cases: under Art. 364 of the Criminal Code (violence or threat of violence against an employee of the internal affairs bodies), art. 368 (insulting Lukashenka), and Art. 369 (insulting a government official).

The activist from Brest is known for her clear-cut and irreconcilable stance towards the Lukashenka regime. During the “parliamentary elections” in 2019, in which she took part, an activist of European Belarus declared on television that Lukashenka was a dictator and also called for his resignation.

Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, a Polish language tutor, together with her husband, the European Belarus activist Andrei Sharenda, brings up two minor children.

On June 8, in the last word, Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk said:

- Look at these sentences that are given to political prisoners, even to young girls who are 18 years old. They are given 4 years, 5 years. What do these sentences mean? This means that these people, having falsified the elections (and not for the first time), think that they drove the people back into the stall with truncheons. They are counting on these sentences for which they want to send people to the colonies. They want to once again sit during these sentences, these 4-5 years, on our necks, dangling their legs. Will we allow it? No, this should not be allowed!

Addressing the judge, Palina added:

- I know you are just a talking head (to the judge - ed. Charter97.org), the chair on which you sit. Therefore, what I want to say is that all the sentences that are allegedly announced here are based not on the force of the law, but the force of lawlessness. All sentences have already been signed in advance, distributed among people who are in places of detention. Therefore, legally, in connection with the falsification of elections, the complete illegitimacy of your so-called courts, all your structures, all these sentences, including mine, which I know you have already passed in advance, all this debate, all this is also decoration.

All these sentences are null and void. They are not legal. I do not recognize them, and I also ask the world community not to recognize all these sentences as legitimate.

During the trial yesterday, Palina made some more loud statements. When the judge asked if Sharenda-Panasiuk agreed with the expert's conclusion that she did not suffer from psychiatric illnesses and did not require treatment, Palina stated:

- For some time now, punitive psychiatry has been actively used in Belarus. In particular, persons subject to political persecution are put on a par with drug addicts and alcoholics. Thus, political activity is equated by this regime with social and social pathologies.

I declare that punitive psychiatry is flourishing in Belarus, as it used to be in the USSR. In this regard, I ask the international community to consider the application of sanctions to Belarusian medicine, which is engaged in punitive psychiatry, - Sharenda-Panasiuk said.

Palina also spoke about internal repressions against political prisoners taking place in the pre-trial detention center No. 7.

- The state prisons of Belarus have been turned into private prisons of the Lukashenka regime, where the so-called quasi-preparations, concealed under the category of preventive accounting, are carried out to political hostages. Just as yellow stars were hung on Jews in Nazi Germany, so-called yellow plates were hung on political hostages in Lukashist Belarus.

They are hung on the doors of cells, on the beds where people sleep. The carrying out of these quasi-preparations began in early April, and, on May 5-6, almost all the pre-trial detention centers were covered with yellow plates. At the moment, out of 41 cells in jail, 25-35 are covered with yellow plates, which indicate that a person is prone to extremism and other destructive activities.

People are forced to say these words in the morning and the evening while watching the video. If you see such a recording where a political prisoner says these words, you should know that this is all happening under pressure. For example, when I refused to recognize the legality of this plate, this professional record, I was placed in a punishment cell. In total, I spent thirty days in the punishment cell, - said Sharenda-Panasiuk.

She also spoke about the bullying of people who do not recognize the legality of preventive accounting.

- 65-year-old Iryna is involved in the Autukhovich case. The head of the pre-trial detention center personally threatened her to rot in the punishment cell, and she has problems with blood pressure and other age-related diseases. She was forced to climb onto the bed on the second tier. She could not do this, and cellmates lifted her so that she could sleep.

The judge tried to interrupt, but Palina continued:

- In the end, the woman was placed in a punishment cell for 10 days. SIZO employees declare their loyalty to the current government, some of them have been identified by political prisoners as people involved in the beatings in garages on August 9-10 on the territory of the Leninsky District Department of Internal Affairs. This is not loyalty to the authorities, this is loyalty to the terrorist regime, and there can be no justification for such loyalty.