They Won't Take Them Further Than Zarechcha

The Homel prison gets rid of rebels.

Yesterday, when human rights activists reported that Volha Mayorava, sentenced to 20 years in prison, was added another year and a half for disobeying the prison administration and transferred from Homel to Zarechcha, the first thought was: "It's strange that only now." Those who know Volha Mayorava will say the same. Because Mayorov is, consider it, a synonym for a heightened sense of justice. And it was obvious that in the colony she would fight for the rights of prisoners in the same way until she was taken to a new court for insubordination.

Volha Mayorava was an activist of the United Civil Party for many years. She left the United Civic Party (UCP) in 2016. Then the party, as always, took part in the parliament elections: the party members said that it was necessary to participate in order to engage in anti-Lukashenka campaigning using legal methods – pickets, meetings with voters, walking around the houses in the districts and the opportunity to tell everyone that the elections were illegitimate, since the results would be falsified. Even the UCP leaders called their candidates not "candidates" but speakers. That is, those who speak, and do not accept the rules of electoral farce. But when the regime unexpectedly threw the dice to Hanna Kanapatskaia from the same batch, the UCP decided: they should be taken with them, with falsifications. Volha Mayorava, with her sense of justice, did not understand how this was possible. She said: "Are you guys ready to declare for the sake of one mandate that in all districts the results are falsified, and in one everything is transparent and legitimate? It's just unfair, guys!" Party members did not understand it: what the hell is honesty if our mandate has been shattered by the generosity of the regime? They didn't give it to anyone, but they gave it to us, we are the coolest. And Volha Mayorava left the UCP.

But she could not be inactive, calm and silent for a minute. Volha joined the Step to the Law Civil Initiative and began collecting signatures for changing the administrative code in order to stop economic pressure on activists. Then, just in Belarus, a large repressive campaign unfolded after the protests of the "parasits": huge fines were assigned to activists and property was taken away. In 2018, when the "house of representatives" was discussing the law "On the Treatment of Animals", Volha gathered animal protection volunteers, and together they created the We Sare Common Home initiative. Volunteers fought for the adoption of another law in Belarus – "On the Protection of Animals", which complies with European conventions. When Volha collected signatures under the petition, she was detained for unauthorized picketing. She came to the court with her three-legged dog Bai. Volha once saved Bai's life and took it home from an animal shelter. And she brought it to court as evidence. Using the example of Bai, she was going to tell the judge about what was happening to stray animals in Belarus. She was fined that time. More than two years remained before the arrest and the twenty-year prison sentence.

I have no doubt that even if Volha Mayorava did not administer Mikalai Autukhovich's Telegram channel, she would still be imprisoned. Maybe not for 20 years. Maybe it would shorter term. However, it would still happen. Mayorava, like Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, would be judged anew every time before the "call" so as not to be released. Such people – fearless, not indifferent, obsessed with justice and ready to fight and sacrifice for it – are a threat not only to great power, but also to small, local, specific. It would seem, what is the logic in the new trial of Mayorava, if she has a term of 20 years? At least it is clear with Palina: the sentence term ends – it means that a new one is needed in order not to release her under any circumstances. But adding a year and a half to the actual 20? It seems like sheer stupidity. I would venture to assume that in this way the administration of the Homel prison decided to simply get rid of the rebellious political prisoner, because after the trial under Article 411, they do not return to Homel – they are taken to Zarechcha, to the prison for recidivists.

If Belarus was huge, like Russia, then Palina and Volha would have long been sentenced in some Magadan or Chukotka, in the permafrost and polar night. It's good that we are in Belarus. They won't take them further than Zarechcha: no way. There are swamps, of course, but at least not permafrost. So we still have a humane state: no logging in the taiga, no uranium mines, no eternal ice under your pick axe.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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