Opposition leader: torture integrated into Belarus’ prison system

June 26, Pozirk. Torture has become a part of the horrific prison experience that hundreds of Belarusians go through every day, Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja has said on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, her press office reports. 

“The regime doesn’t keep this a secret, it doesn’t hide it behind prison walls,” she noted in a video address. “When people are released, everyone sees the horrors of torture.”

Moreover, Alaksandar lukašenka’s regime now targets exiled Belarusians by holding trials in their absence, seizing their property and harassing their Belarus-based families, the politician said, describing transnational repression as “an extension of the same system of violence.”

Cichanoŭskaja called for the collection of evidence of torture and other crimes of the current Belarusian authorities. “We must ensure that everyone who gave and carried out criminal orders is held accountable,” she stressed.