"You will not get out alive with your diagnosis" The story of a former prisoner at Akrescina

The human rights situation in Belarus has been at a catastrophic level for almost five years. Arbitrary detentions of people for exercising their civil rights continue; in January 2025, Viasna recorded at least 506 cases of politically motivated repression, including detentions, searches, and other actions resulting from criminal and administrative prosecution. Since 2020, special inhuman conditions have been created in Belarusian detention centers for political detainees. A former detainee, who recently served several days of detention at Akrescina, told Viasna about the conditions there, as well as about a Ukrainian cancer patient who was detained after surgery to remove lymphoma.

"I was the 16th one there"

Iryna (name changed for security reasons) initially served her days of detention in the famous women's cell No. 15, which thousands of "political" detainees passed through.

"They brought me in at seven in the evening. I didn't know then that everyone in the cell had to get up when the door opened. And so they bring me there, and I still remember my impression," the woman laughs, "the girls are all standing and looking at me like meerkats.

It was a two-person cell, and I was the 16th one there. It was a peak. Then our number decreased: someone was transferred on criminal charges, someone was released. There were a lot of bedbugs in the cell.

Before the bed time, we had our own rituals: to rub in tar soap in our face and exposed body parts, put on underpants instead of a sleep mask [because the lights are on in the cell all the time — editor's note]."

"15th, you have too many things, give them all to me, and I'll throw them away."

Iryna recalls that the nighttime checks conducted by male guards were more harsh. The men set new conditions each time: for example, the women had to say their number, as well as their first and last names. If someone got the number wrong, then it started all over again.

One of the guards had a habit of calling all women "grannies" regardless of age. At first, the women did not know how to react and did not understand who he was addressing.

"We also had a crazy guy who at some point said, '15th, you have too many things, give them all to me, and I'll throw them away.' And we didn't have any extra things, because at night we slept on the floor, we were cold and we put on absolutely everything. So we found something unnecessary, like women's thong panties, which were left by the previous arrested women, and gave it to him."

Later, during one of the checks, the employees nevertheless took away everything that was in the cell: toothbrushes and pastes, toilet paper.

"You will not get out alive with your diagnosis"

Iryna said that in the autumn, a Ukrainian woman with a Belarusian residence permit, who had lived in Belarus for 20 years, was held in Akrescina.

"She was detained by KGB officers in Brest almost immediately after the surgery to remove lymphoma from her armpit. She asked the doctor for an antiseptic and applied it to her stitches. She underwent her first course of chemotherapy and was captured by the KGB right in the clinic where she went to see her doctor. She literally had her course of chemotherapy interrupted. They also told her, 'You will not get out alive with your diagnosis.' They dragged her for interrogations every day, effectively depriving her of food."

According to the woman herself, she was persecuted because of the activities of her daughter, who lives in Poland.

Photographing for the Kipod surveillance system

One day, all the women were taken out of the cell to be photographed. Iryna and her cellmates believe this may be necessary for the Kipod surveillance system, which allows tracking of every person whose photo is in the system. For Kipod, for example, the employees take photos of those sentenced to home confinement to track their movement around the city.

"We were all sat down and photographed in turn. A woman photographed us from different angles. She said, 'Look at the camera, but turn around. Tilt your head up, down, etc.'"

After Iryna was released, the woman had to go through a so-called "strip search". She was forced to completely undress and squat.