As Svaboda learned, Ihar Losik’s parents have not received letters from their son for a month. Igor’s mother reported that he did not receive many letters from his parents, and they did not receive all letters from his son. The last time the lawyer saw Igor in the colony was in mid-February.
10 days ago, the lawyer was not allowed to visit Losik
On March 10, Igor’s lawyer went to the Novopolotsk colony. As Svaboda learned, as a result, the defender was not allowed to meet with Ihor Losik. The reason given was that the political prisoner did not write an application in advance for a meeting with a lawyer, and at that moment he was allegedly at work, and prisoners cannot be separated from it.
The lawyer was informed that Igor is working, everything is fine with him, he will be handed over to write letters to his parents: “They say, Igor will write soon.”
After the announcement of Daria Losik’s verdict, the spouses were allegedly allowed to correspond. Igor wrote more than 20 letters to Dasha. Daria also wrote to him a lot, but only one letter from his wife reached Igor after Daria’s sentence.
Igor was very upset that he would not be able to meet his daughter Paulina on a date
At the end of March, the political prisoner’s parents are going on a long-term meeting with Igor – “political” people are allowed to meet only for one day (and not for two, like ordinary prisoners). Ihar Losik used to ask very much in letters to bring his 4-year-old daughter Pavlinka on a date. However, due to bureaucratic obstacles, Igor’s parents cannot take Paulina with them on a date, as they are not legally the girl’s guardians. Guardianship has been officially issued to Daria’s parents. Ihar reproachfully wrote in one of the earlier letters that, apparently, “he will see his daughter when she finishes school.”
Igor’s parents allowed that he gets tired at work, he works 6 days a week sorting at some storage facility. After the previous hunger strike, his health deteriorated – he was diagnosed with hypertension of the second degree and was even transferred from the sawmill to lighter work. In addition, Losik has mood swings.
As human rights activists of “Viasny” found out, Ihar Losik was in the SHIZA of the Navapolat colony. There he went on hunger strike for a long time, and then cut his hands and neck. According to the information of the defenders, Igor was rescued after this incident and now he is in the Medsanchastok.
Ihar’s father Aleksandar Losik is now urgently contacting a lawyer, together they are going to go to the Novopolotsk colony to find out all the circumstances of the incident on the spot. Aleksandar Losik hopes that he will be allowed to meet his son in the medical center, as Maria Kalesnikova’s father was once allowed to meet his daughter in the hospital.
March 21 marks exactly 1,000 days since Ihar Losik has been behind bars. On the same day, the Supreme Court in Minsk will hear an appeal against Daria Losik’s sentence.
Criminal prosecution of Igor and Daria Losikov
Criminal proceedings were instituted against the administrator of the “RB Brain” community and the freelance consultant of Radio Svaboda Ihar Losik according to Part 1 of Art. 342 of the Criminal Code (“preparation for violation of public order”) and Part 2 of Art. 293 (“preparation for participation in mass riots”).
Losik was detained on June 25, 2020 after a house search in Baranavichy. At that time, 167,000 people were subscribed to his Telegram channel “RB Brain”.
Ihar Losik actively covered the events of the presidential elections of Belarus. Human rights activists recognized him as a political prisoner.
On December 15, after the second indictment, Ihar Losik announced a protest hunger strike and held it until January 25.
On March 11, 2021, Losik was charged with a new charge. As a sign of protest, Igor injured his wrist in front of the lawyer and the investigator, and also announced a dry hunger strike. For this, Losik was placed in the cell of Zhodzin remand prison. He stayed there for five days, four of which he was on a dry hunger strike.
On December 14, 2021, in the pre-trial detention center-3 building in Gomli, the judge Nikolay Dolya sentenced 6 defendants:
- Igor Losik sentenced to 15 years in prison,
- Artem Sakov – 16 years old,
- Mykola Statkevich – 14 years old,
- Dmitriy Popov – 16 years old,
- Serhiy Tsikhanovsky – 18 years old,
- Vladimir Tsyganovich – 15 years of imprisonment.
Ihar Losik’s wife Dar’yu was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony (according to Art. 361-4 of the Criminal Code) for an interview about her husband, in which, according to the indictment, she “positioned herself as the wife of a political prisoner.” Daria Losik was sentenced on January 19, 2023 by the judge of the Brest Regional Court Nikolai Grigorovich.