Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk Was Badly Beaten In Prison And Disappeared

The political prisoner has a broken rib and bruised kidney.

Neither the relatives nor the lawyer manage to find out the current location of the political prisoner Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, an activist of the European Belarus Civil Campaign.

Her husband Andrei Sharenda announced this on Facebook.

According to him, on July 7, the political prisoner was taken out of pre-trial detention center #1 on Valadarski Street in Minsk under a special convoy. Since then, it has not been possible to find out where she is.

“Only now, from anonymous sources, it was possible to find out some details of what happened to Palina in early June before the transportation for a psychiatric examination in Navinki psychiatric hospital.

The administration of penal colony #24 organized a so-called “sweatbox” for Palina, placing two female provocateurs in a ward-type room together with her. It is clear that Palina, exhausted by many months of being in the punishment cell and a ward-type room, was unable to fight back and (was severely beaten). They beat her so badly that she needed hospitalization in the medical unit of the penal colony. According to unverified information, Palina's rib and nasal root were broken and her kidney was bruised. Even almost three weeks after the beating on June 22, when Palina was spotted in the pre-trial detention center #1 on Valadarski Street. Palina still had numerous bruises on her face and a scar on the bridge of her nose,” Andrei Sharenda said.

The mother of two children, Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, was detained on January 3, 2021. Security forces armed with bulletproof vests broke down the door to her apartment, conducted a search, arrested her property, and handcuffed her and took her to a police cell. On June 9, 2021, Judge Yauhen Brehan sentenced Palina to two years in a penal colony. Prosecutor Pavel Krupenich put forward the accusation.

Palina was supposed to be released on August 6, but a criminal case was opened against her for the second time under Art. 411 of the Criminal Code (Willful disobedience of the demands of the prison administration). Now the activist of the European Belarus faces up to two more years in prison.