Journalist Karniej recounts mistreatment of political prisoners

July 14, Pozirk. Journalist Ihar Karniej, who was recently released from prison following a meeting between Alaksandar Łukašenka and US diplomats, revealed in a YouTube interview that people who had sent him parcels while he was incarcerated were later prosecuted on criminal charges.

“These people were imprisoned for helping others,” Karniej said during an appearance on the Obychnoye Utro show.

He also shared details about the harsh conditions in Belarusian penal colonies. One such facility included an internal prison section known as the PKT, which he described as a slightly improved version of a punishment cell.

According to Karniej, the key difference was that inmates in the PKT were issued “a mattress and a blanket with holes” for the night, while those in standard punishment cells received neither. PKT inmates were also permitted to correspond with relatives, though Karniej noted that he was allowed to write only to his mother and wife.

Even then, letters were delivered in batches only once every two or three weeks, and outgoing correspondence was unreliable—most of his letters, he said, were destroyed by censors.

Karniej also recounted the extreme overcrowding in a disciplinary cell at the Akrescina Street detention center in Minsk. He described a windowless cell measuring just 1.7 meters by 3.4 meters, equipped with a single wall-mounted fold-down bench. Despite the limited space, wardens routinely confined an average of 10 people in the cell. Inmates, forced to sleep on a foam-glass concrete floor under constant bright lighting, were routinely awakened at 2 a.m. and again at 4 a.m.

Karniej, who had worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was arrested in July 2023 and sentenced to three years in prison on charges related to extremism. An additional 10 months were later added to his sentence for alleged disobedience to prison authorities.

He was released on June 21 and immediately transferred to Lithuania, following Łukašenka’s meeting with Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine.

Also read: Łukašenka pardons 16 political prisoners 11 days after releasing 14