After being transferred to the detention centre in Zhodzina, Tsikhanouskaya’s associate and Coordination Council member Maryia Kalesnikava got allergy attacks; she is in need of medicines.
“She has a bad cough, blocked nose, sore and swollen throat, teary eyes,” lawyer Lyudmila Kazak who visited Maryia on Monday told The Village.
There is every likelihood that Maryia is allergic to dust; in custody, she was provided with a stale mattress and a smelly pillow. The arrestee appealed to the prison authorities, asking them to get the bedding changed and give permission for accepting a parcel of medicines for her. The letters Belarusians were writing to Maryia were not handed over to her, the lawyer added.
On September 7, Maryia Kalesnikava was kidnapped near the National Art Museum in Minsk. Unidentified people drove her away in an unknown direction. As it turned ou later, the politician 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.
“They warned that if I did not voluntarily leave the territory of the Republic of Belarus, I would still be withdrawn – ‘alive or ‘in pieces’,” Maryia said.
On September 8, 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. Later, she was taken to prison in Minsk.
