Rzeczpospolita: Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk's Husband Calls On Polish Authorities To Seek Her Release

The political prisoner has Polish roots.

One of the largest Polish publications Rzeczpospolita writes about the political prisoner, activist of the European Belarus civil campaign Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk. The day before, her husband Andrei Sharenda spoke about his wife's deteriorating health.

The last time he saw his wife was in January 2021, when she was arrested by security forces. He was also supposed to go to a camp, but he fled to Lithuania with two children. For several days, he fled from the dictatorship through forests and swamps.

This is a well-known opposition family from Brest, who have been part of the European Belarus civil campaign for many years. They dreamed of a different future for their country, without dictatorship, prisons and torture. But fate turned out quite differently.

The secret services began to persecute them a few months after the suppression of protests in 2020. Palina was called the “Belarusian Joan of Arc” in independent media, since she was not broken after her arrest and, standing before the regime's court, gave a speech in June 2021, which was widely disseminated by free media.

“I know that you are a talking head sitting in a chair. All the sentences handed down here are based not on the force of law, but on the force of lawlessness,” she addressed the judge in her final statement.

She paid dearly for her position. Even when she was behind bars, she was tried three times on charges of “disobeying the administration of the penal colony”, her prison term was extended every year, she spent several hundred days in a punishment cell. Information came from prison that she was beaten. For several years now, the oppositionist has been kept in complete isolation and deprived of contact with the outside world.

Several of his opponents have already died in the dictator's prisons. The regime keeps many oppositionists in complete isolation, and their relatives fear for their lives.

“The last letter I received from my wife arrived in 2021. For over a year now, we have not been able to give her a parcel. At the beginning of each month, the duty officers bring her a thirty-kilogram bag of rotten apples or carrots. And they say that she has exhausted the entire monthly parcel limit,” says Palina's husband.

In March, the political prisoner was shown on the propaganda channel Belarus-1. The “journalist” showed her recordings of her children staying with their father in Lithuania. With tears in her eyes, Palina asked for the opportunity to return to her family, apologized “for her actions” and even asked the dictator for a pardon.

She was not released, although Lukashenka has since amnestied several dozen political prisoners. However, the administration of penal colony #24 (Homel region) informed the oppositionist's family that Palina had pancreatitis. In addition, she must appear in court again. And hear another sentence.

The Belarusian regime wants to avoid painful Western sanctions. It offers to release political prisoners, but they must ask Lukashenka for clemency.

“Palina is dying in a Belarusian prison today. We recently learned that her health has deteriorated sharply. She needs medical care, but she is not receiving it. This information was provided by other women who are in the same prison. My wife is being slowly killed. The dictator is taking revenge on strong and brave women,” says Andrei Sharenda.

According to him, Lukashenka's special services recently came to his parents' house.

“They said that they would release Palina if I returned to Belarus, and together we would make a request for pardon. There have been situations before when people trusted the services, returned to Belarus and ended up behind bars,” he says.

“Palina has Polish roots. She spent a lot of time in Poland, where she also completed her education. I am asking the Polish authorities for help so that they also demand the release of my wife from the regime in Minsk, as well as the release of Andrzej Poczobut,” he added.

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