2023-08-26 11:52:12
Andrey Kuznechik. Photo: Radio Svaboda
The political prisoner of the Radio Svaboda journalist has been in Navapolotsk colony No. 1 for a year already, where he is serving six years, sentenced for allegedly creating an extremist group.
In the letters that his relatives receive, Andrei writes that he reads a lot – he has already read almost a hundred books. He also subscribes to a lot of periodicals, looking for interesting information there, reports the Belarusian Association of Journalists.
He notes that something interesting began to appear in “Vecherny Minsk”, for example, an article about a distinctive geography classroom in the 109th school.
“Sometimes there are interesting numbers, but most often they are empty,” Andrey Kuznechik writes. He asks his relatives to write him the headlines of some issue of the Minsk Courier newspaper. Hopes, “Maybe it’s even more interesting.” He also asks to see the “Transport Bulletin” for him.
As often happens, in his letters Andrei again recounts his dreams of freedom: “One of them was realistic. There I got into the Shabany metro station, stood in line at the ticket office for a long time, then I was still fumbling there, as the money had changed. Then at home I thought thoughtfully that I had been thinking for so long how it would be and when it would be, and now it had already come – I was at home, and I was reflecting on the first minutes of the long-awaited state in a philosophical mood.
The political prisoner has been behind bars since November 25, 2021. A search was carried out in his apartment, the security forces briefly managed to seize control of the Radio Svaboda telegram channel. The next day, Andrei Kuznechik was sentenced by the court of Zavodskoy district of Minsk to 10 days in an administrative case, but on December 5 he was not released and was again sentenced by the same court to another 10 days. But even on December 15 he was not released.
On December 23, his relatives were informed that a criminal case had been opened against him, and the detainee was transferred to Volodarka, to SIZO-1 on Volodarsky Street in Minsk. In mid-May 2022, it became known that Andrei was transferred to the Mogilev SIZO. On January 11, 2022, the Belarusian human rights community recognized Andrei Kuznechik as a political prisoner.
On June 8, 2022, in the Mogilev Regional Court, a freelance journalist was convicted under Part 1 of Art. 361-1 of the Criminal Code (creation of an extremist formation or participation in it). Judge Igor Shvedov sentenced Andrei Kuznechik to imprisonment in a penal colony for a period of 6 years.
On September 1, 2022, Andrei was transferred to Novopolotsk Colony No. 1. The Ministry of Internal Affairs included Andrei in the list of people involved in “extremist” activities.
There are 35 media workers behind bars. Some of them were sentenced to gigantic terms, such as Igor Losik and Andrey Aleksandrov.
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