On October 14, Alyaksandr Kalesnikau visited his daughter, political prisoner Maryia Kalesnikava, in the pre-trial detention centre, the Telegram channel of convicted might-have-been presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka‘s team reports.
During the meeting, father and daughter talked for about an hour on the phone. According to Alyaksandr, Mariya ‘looks cheerful, she reads a lot and follow the news’. She said that she would like to subscribe to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta’; the political prisoner knew that its editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Maryia asked father to pass on her congratulations to the prominent media worker.
Kalesnikava is aware of her becoming the holder of the 2021 Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize. She is very proud of it; the laureate believes that this award is devoted to all Belarusian political prisoners. She also sent greetings to reputed Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, Viktar Babaryka’s daughter Maryia, all friends and associates.
️On September 6, a Minsk court passed guilty verdict in the case of activist Maryia Kalesnikava and lawyer Maksim Znak, who contributed to Babaryka’s election campaign and then became the members of the board of the opposition Coordination Council established by opposition politician Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Kalesnikava and Znak were tried for ‘calling for actions aimed at harming the national security’ (Art. 361-3 of the Criminal Code); ‘conspiracy to seize state power in an unconstitutional way’ (Article 357-1); ‘establishing and ruling an extremist group’ (Article 361-1). The trial which kicked off on August 4 was held behind the closed doors. The two defendants denied all the charges.
On that day, Maryia Kalesnikava was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment in a minimum security penal colony, Maksim Znak – to 10 years in a medium security penal colony.
On 7 September 2020, Maryia Kalesnikava was kidnapped near the National Art Museum in Minsk. Unidentified people drove her away in an unknown direction. As it turned out later, the activist spent half a day in the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption; then she was taken to the State Security Committee (KGB), where the chekists demanded she voluntarily depart from Belarus. According to her, several KGB officers voiced threats to take her life. A day later, Coordination Council spokesman Anton Radnyankou and secretary Ivan Krautsou who were forced out of Belarus gave a press conference in Kyiv. They told how the KGB failed to push Kalesnikava out the country. In the neutral zone, she destroyed her passport, jumped out of the car and returned to the Belarusian border.
In December 2020, the Prosecutor General’s Office launched criminal proceedings over establishing ‘an extremist group’, being in control of it, financing its activities as well as conspiring against members of the Coordination Council, including Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Pavel Latushka, Volha Kavalkova, Syarhei Dyleuski, and other Belarusian activists.
Belarusian human rights watchdogs recognised Maksim Znak and Maryia Kalesnikava as political prisoners.
