Ailing and silenced in prison, Belarus activist symbolizes the nation's repression - The Round Table The most recent time any of Maria Kolesnikova’s family had contact with the imprisoned Belarusian opposition activist was more than 18 months ago
TALLINN, Estonia -- The previous time any of Maria Kolesnikova's family had contact with the imprisoned Belarusian opposition activist was more than 18 months ago. Fellow inmates at the penal colony declared hearing her plead for medical assist from inside her tiny and smelly cell.
Her father, Alexander Kolesnikov, announced to The Associated Press by phone from Minsk that he knows she's seriously ill and tried to visit her several months ago at the facility near Gomel, where she is serving an 11-year sentence, but has failed whenever he goes there.
On his last attempt, he announced the warden informed him, “If she doesn't summon or doesn't write, that means she doesn't require to.”
The 42-year-old musician-turned-activist is known to have been hospitalized in Gomel in May or June, but the consequence was unclear, revealed a former prisoner who identified herself only as Natalya because she feared retaliation from authorities.
“I can only pray to God that she is still alive,” Kolesnikov reported in an interview. “The authorities are ignoring my requests for a meeting and for letters — it is a terrible feeling of impotence for a father.”
Kolesnikova conquered prominence when mass censures erupted in Belarus after the widely contradicted August 2020 election gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. With her close-cropped hair, broad smile and a gesture of machinating her outstretched hands into the shape of a heart, she often was seen at the front of the demonstrations.
She became an even greater symbol of defiance in September of that year when Belarusian authorities tried to deport her. Driven to the Ukrainian border, she briefly broke away from security forces in the neutral zone at the frontier and tore up her passport, then walked champion into Belarus. She was convicted a year later of allegations including scheme to seize power.
Natalya, whose cell was next to Kolesnikova’s before being released in August, reported she had not heard her uttering to guards for six months. Other inmates heard Kolesnikova's pleas for medical assistance, she said, but stated that doctors did not come for “a very long time.”
Regards to ABC News
Category: World-News
Tag: Ailing and silenced in prison Belarus activist symbolizes the nationx27s repression The Round Table
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Published 10/14/2024