‘Palina, Hold On! We'll Be Together Soon!’

Joan of Arc from Belarusian Brest celebrates her fourth birthday in a row behind bars.

Today is Palina Sharenda-Panasyuk’s birthday – political prisoner, activist of the European Belarus Civil Campaign and mother of two boys.

This is the fourth birthday in a row that Joan of Arc from Brest meets behind bars. Palina is in women's prison #24 in Zarechcha at the moment.

Charter97.org asked her husband Andrei Sharenda to tell the story of their acquaintance and share the latest news about the political prisoner:

– I met Palina more than 20 years ago – in 2000. The struggle for Belarus united us. My love for the Belarusian language and stories led me to the Brest unit of the Young Front.

It was there that I saw a curly-haired, blonde, blue-eyed girl – Palina.

At that time, she already led the entire Brest Young Front cell. At that time, the Zubr resistance movement arose, Palina joined it in 2001.

She was one of the field commanders of the movement. I was one of its loyal soldier-activists for several years. You know, I remember this time vividly. We conducted a lot of partisan actions. I associate that time with the smell of spray paint, graffiti, pasting stickers and leaflets at night.

For the first few years, we kept friendly relations with Palina, were together at events, went to concerts. As a result, she went to Poland, where she completed her master's degree [Palina was a fellow of the Lane Kirkland Scholarship Program — Ed.]. I also studied at the university at that time. We haven't seen each other for a while.

We again began to communicate more closely in 2005, when there were "elections". We actively participated in those events, but most of all we were brought together by the Kalinouski Square in 2006. 18 years have passed since those events...

That's when our relationship with Palina grew into something stronger. Our true love came after friendship, and we are still in love.

Two years later (in 2008), we got married. A year later, the eldest son Slavamir was born, and seven years later, the youngest Stakh was born.

By the will of fate, Stakh was born on March 25, 2016. I met his birthday in Minsk on Freedom Day. After that, we went through a lot...

In recent years, we have passed through administrative arrests, detentions, and criminal cases against me and Palina. It so happened that in July 2021, I managed to escape from house arrest. Our sons and I are living in Vilnius now.

Palina, unfortunately, remained hostage to the Lukashenka regime. This is revenge on our family for our steadfast stance.

— Is there any news from Palina?

— Unfortunately, there has been no news from Palina for almost three months. From the moment she was taken to prison #24 for hard-core criminals. All the contact with her was lost.

The lawyer tried to break through to her three times to no avail. We wrote several statements demanding to give us information about Palina’s health. In response, we received a short notice that she did not need medical care. It only added to our anxiety.

Nevertheless, on this spring day, my wife's birthday, I want to say: “Palina, my love, hold on! We'll be together soon!”

Recall: Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk was detained on January 3, 2021. She has been behind bars ever since.

You can support the political prisoner at the address: Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, IK No. 24. 247526, Praizvodstvennaia St., 44, Zarechcha village, Rechytsa district, Homel region.

It should be noted that earlier Charter97.org, within the framework of the Iron People of Belarus project, made a great interview with Palina Sharendo-Panasyuk. You can read it here.