Former political prisoner Dzmitry Kaneuski: "I felt pressure against me in the penal colony on a daily basis"
Former Homeĺ political prisoner Dzmitry Kaneuski, after serving his sentence for just one comment in the Telegram chat Homeĺ Saviecki 97, could be prosecuted under a criminal article again. He decided not to push his luck anymore and left Belarus. Dzmitry agreed to tell Viasna about his persecution and the conditions of serving his sentence in penal colony No. 22 in Ivacevičy.
After the detention in August 2020 of his mother Tatsiana Kaneyeuskaya, a well-known Homieĺ activist and at the time a confidant of presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and now a political prisoner, Dzmitry could not take it anymore. In one of the chats, he spoke emotionally about the events of 2020, including the actions of the security forces.
"On January 16, 2021, about five security forces officers detained me. They took me to the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption, where they issued an official warning and let me go home. But after ten days, they came for me again. This time, they took me to the department of the Investigative Committee. My comment served as an excuse to charge me with 'deliberate actions aimed at inciting social hatred' under Article 130, Part 1 of the Criminal Code. Before that, on May 7, I was detained on Lenin Square for allegedly participating in an unauthorized protest, and on June 2, 2020, judge Viktar Kazachok fined me," Dzmitry says.
For almost eight months before his trial, Kaneuski was held in the Homieĺ pre-trial detention center in appalling conditions: rundown walls, cold, dirt, and stench:
"There is a new building in the pre-trial detention center, but I stayed there for only one week. And then back to the old building, where it was a complete nightmare. They even punished me for sitting on the bed, tucking my legs under myself to warm up a little. I spent about eight months there, and then I waited about a month for the transfer to the penal colony.
"Which one of you is the son of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's accomplice?"
On June 17, 2021, judge of the Homieĺ Regional Court Ruslan Tsaruk sentenced Dzmitry Kaneuski to three years of imprisonment in a general security penal colony. Dzmitry Kaneuski was transferred to Ivacevičy penal colony No. 22, where he served his three years sentence.
"As soon as we were brought there, the first person who 'greeted' me was the head of the security department, major Yury Molash. He went in with inspectors and asked: which one of you is the son of Tsikhanouskaya's accomplice? Then they took me to a separate room, where they talked to me, and then they immediately put me in a punitive isolation cell (SHIZO) for 20 days. I didn't even have time to change my clothes. That was my quarantine. The hardest thing was to be in solitary confinement and not know anything. Concrete walls, no mattress, no blanket. And instead of a pillow, a roll of toilet paper. When I joined the squad after SHIZO, I was greeted with the question: 'So this is Kaneuskaya's son?' I thought that problems would start now, but, on the contrary, they helped in everything," Dzmitry recalls his prison days.
- Dzmitry Kaneuski on trial. Photo: Homieĺ Viasna
In general, I felt pressure against me every day. For any trifle and misconduct, a report was immediately drawn up. For example, I had 15 wafers in my bag. I took one, but I didn't have time to indicate in the list of my belongings that there were already 14 of them. And this was enough for a report and a penalty. And back to SHIZO. Throughout the entire sentence, I was in the squad for maybe a year. The rest of the time was either a cell-type space (PKT) or SHIZO. In the penal colony, my eyesight and teeth became very bad, and 'conversations' with Molosh in the 'physical language' also did not improve my health.
"Rubbed the uniform for the Interior Ministry employees, sewn in the industrial zone, with glass wool"
Dzmitry was sent to work in a sewing workshop, where clothes were made, including uniforms for Interior Ministry employees. For such work, he received five rubles a month (1.4 euros), and the rest was withheld.
"One day, I had an opportunity, and I rubbed the armpit area of a whole batch of these uniforms, maybe 150 units, with glass wool so that they would chafe them all the time.
After serving my sentence in full, I was released in October 2023. After that, three times a week, I had to come to a police department to report. Also, I had to do community service. If you do not come, this is a violation, and they can punish you with a fine or several days of detention. And at some point, I had accumulated around 18 violations. Then the reports were sent to the Investigative Committee. There was a threat of a new criminal offense for 'malicious evasion of educational work for the prevention of extremism.' There was nothing left to do but to leave Belarus. I had no other choice. And in Belarus, I was put on the wanted list. Since I used to work in Poland for several years, I already knew the language, so I returned there.
His mother Tatsiana Kaneuskaya, who was sentenced to six years in a medium security penal colony, is still serving her sentence in Mahilioŭ prison No. 4.
An open fundraiser to help former political prisoner Dzmitry Kaneuski in exile.
