Sister of Belarus protest leader Maryia Kalesnikava says she's starving in prison
Four years on from her arrest, Maryia Kalesnikava, 42, is being held incommunicado in a tiny, stinking prison cell where the toilet is a hole in the floor, her sister Tatsiana Khomich says, based on information she has gleaned from sources including former inmates.
Kalesnikava's weight has dropped to just 45 kg, although she is 175 cm tall, as a perforated stomach ulcer means she cannot tolerate most prison food, Khomich said. She was last allowed to write to her family in February last year. Letters she has been sent from the outside world have been torn up in front of her by prison staff, Khomich has been told.
"I believe this is a critical moment because no one can survive for a long time in such conditions," she told in an interview from outside Belarus. "They torture her, basically. It's psychological but also physical torture as well."
The Belarus interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Kalesnikava's prison conditions.
"We don't have much time to save Maria's life," Khomich said in a video appeal.
Khomich said she did not see any end to repression but that the West should encourage Lukashenko to keep releasing prisoners. Asked if Kalesnikava would be willing to request a pardon from Lukashenko, as prisoners freed so far have had to do, she replied that she was not sure: "But I hope that if she will be provided with such an opportunity, she will use it."
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