2023-07-19 11:11:44
The cross : Who is Ales Pushkin and why was he in prison?
Eugenia Andreyuk: Ales Pouchkine was a very active artist in the pro-democracy movement since the 1990s. He is a historical figure in the movement. He was notably known for having dumped manure near the buildings of the presidential administration in 1999.
He was arrested in 2021, upon his return from an exhibition in Ukraine. Many had told him not to return, warning him that he risked being arrested. He made the choice to share the destiny of his people. Most of the time, the authorities know who they want to arrest and then find a pretext to do so. He was accused of inciting hatred and rehabilitating Nazism for painting a portrait of anti-communist fighters from the 1940s. At the time, as in other countries, some people in Belarus made the choice of Germany rather than the Soviet Union during World War II, as the German authorities had promised the country’s independence.
As heirs to the Soviet era, Lukashenko and official propaganda summarize this period as follows: “We were fighting the bad guys, we won and that was it. » Everything is black or white, they are not interested in reality and the complexity of the moment. The anti-Soviet movement of that time was very taboo, even at the academic level. Some have gone abroad to be able to study this subject. The case of Ales Pouchkine shows how the ideology of the regime dominates everything. Instead of analyzing and reflecting on our history as other countries do in order to have a more objective view of a complex reality, they are reverting to Soviet-style propaganda.
In what conditions Ales Pushkinwas he detained?
IT’S AT : When he was sentenced to five years in prison, I thought to myself that it was manageable and that with the time spent in pretrial detention before his trial, he could be released quickly. The news of his death came as a shock. He was 57 years old, he was not old. Some political prisoners are older, there are even pensioners and some are sick. We didn’t know of any health issues.
Viasna (main human rights organization in Belarus, editor’s note) published an anonymous testimonial from a doctor who treated Ales. According to him, he would have been hospitalized for a stomach ulcer. The witness believes that this problem worsened because he had not been treated before. When he arrived at the hospital, the doctors could not do anything.
The penal colony in which he was detained has a very bad reputation. It is one of the worst in the country. Previously, there have been problems with the conditions of detention of detainees in Belarus, the country does not meet international standards and there has never been an independent body to monitor this.
Is torture systematic in the country’s prisons?
IT’S AT : Before 2020, prisoners were tortured to extract confessions, especially in pretrial detention. It was a common practice of the Soviet system which used them in trials like this. There were also cases of torture of political prisoners, but not as much as after 2020 and the protest movement against President Lukashenko. The people arrested during the demonstrations were then all tortured. They were beaten and subjected to psychological pressure. This use of torture very quickly became public and known after the detainees came out of their cells and showed the traces of the abuse they had suffered.
As the 2021 protests ended, the torture continued behind prison walls. The regime uses it just like mistreatment of political prisoners, even after their trial, just as a punishment. Their conditions of detention are deliberately difficult: they are deprived of a mattress or food. But it is very complicated to obtain information on what is happening there. Lawyers don’t have access to prisons, letters don’t go in and out.
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