Authorities Send Belarusian Joan of Arc For Psychiatric Examination

Earlier, Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk renounced Belarusian citizenship in protest.

The European Belarus activist, political prisoner Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk was sent from the colony to the Republican Mental Health Center in Navinki for a psychiatric examination. This happened shortly after the activist wrote an application to renounce Belarusian citizenship. The situation with Palina was reported by her husband Andrei Sharenda, who is now in Vilnius, Radio Svaboda writes.

“The transportation from Rechytsa to Navinki, Minsk may take two weeks. It is known for certain that before the transportation, Palina was in the medical unit of the colony for about two weeks, maybe she was brought into a condition suitable for transportation. She was transferred from the colony only a few days ago. So far, I have no more information about my wife. Apparently, she will undergo an examination in Navinki,” said the husband of the political prisoner Andrei.

According to Andrei Sharenda, the renunciation of citizenship was a protest against the constant pressure that the woman experienced in custody.

“This is her protest against torture. She refuses the Belarusian passport with the Stalin coat of arms on the cover, and no longer wants to have anything to do with the regime that has formed in Belarus. The regime that destroys the independence of Belarus by participating in the war. The regime that kills her and other political prisoners in prisons,” Andrei Sharenda said.

In June 2021, Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk (who was detained on January 3, 2021) was sentenced to 2 years in prison for violence against police officers and for insulting Lukashenka.

Since then, the court has added two more years to the activist’s sentence for “malicious disobedience to the administration of the correctional institution” (Article 411 of the Criminal Code). The woman was first held in the Homel women's colony, designed for the so-called “first-timers”, and then transferred to a colony in the village of Zarechcha, Rechytsa district, where those who are convicted a second time or more go. According to information received by Andrei Sharenda from Belarus, in both colonies his wife was held most of the time either in a punishment cell or in the cell-type premises.

“Palina is being killed slowly but purposefully. Palina's body is so exhausted that it is already difficult for her to walk. Due to the lack of sunlight, Palina’s eyesight has deteriorated greatly,” writes the activist’s husband in an appeal to international humanitarian and human rights organizations.

Andrei urged human rights activists of the world to “monitor the fate of his wife and do everything possible to release her and all political prisoners”.