Political prisoner Natallia Hersche refuses to ask for pardon insisting she is innocent
“Natallia refused everyone, as she considers herself innocent,” her brother Henadz Kasyan told Radio Liberty.
The Swiss citizen Natallia Hersche was sentenced to two and a half years in Belarus to tear off the balaclava from a policeman’s face. She has been in prison since September 19, 2020, serving her sentence in the Homiel colony #4. She was recognized as a political prisoner. She spent two months in solitary confinement for refusing to sew uniforms for law enforcement officers and is now alone in a cell-type room.
Recently Natallia’s brother Henadz Kasyan received the first letter from her in almost four months. She wrote that she had received only one letter in the last two weeks before writing her own.
She feels fine, no stress, except that she is worried about her hair, which has begun to fall out. She reads the Gulag Archipelago and tries to spend her time constructively. He complains about the conditions of his detention. The quality of food has improved: she now has potatoes, beets, and cabbage.
According to Henadz, Natallia has already been asked to write a pardon petition to Alyaksandr Lukashenka three times. Henadz believes that this issue was also raised by the head of the Council of the Republic, Natalia Kachanava, who in early August visited the women’s colony in Homiel, where Natallia and other political prisoners are serving their sentences.
Natallia is also looking forward to her next meeting with Swiss Ambassador Claude Altermatt, who visited her in July:
“Mr. Altermatt is already like a relative to me, and the last time we even exchanged air kisses, well who could have imagined such a thing more than a year ago,” Natallia writes.
You can write to Natallia at the following address: Colony #4. 246035, Homiel, Antoshkina Street, 3.
