- What are your feelings after the release?
- Very nice, I’m ready to continue the fight! The time in prison only gave me more power to resist the authorities.
- So that arrest didn’t frighten you, didn’t make you step back.
- Of course a human being is sometimes afraid of something. But I try not to give up.
- What was the relation towards political prisoners in Okrestino prison?
- It was quite normal. May be because of the fact that the majority of political prisoners are well educated intellectual people. We know our rights and can defend it. Know the law. Fight for our human honor.
- What about the food there?
- I could only look at it. One time I even tried to eat it but my organism advised me not to do that. I was on huger strike. As far as I know some other people did the same. They let to pass only juices, mineral water. We wrote letters to the warden with the request to let to pass food. But he told us: You are not in prison! In prison they let to pass 30 kilos a month. Let people pass 15 kilos here. People are staying here for 15 days! We have to pay attention to this fact in the future. Our mistake is that we don’t even know what products are allowed to pass. There are some rules but they don’t let to get to know them. We have to write a complaint about this fact. During the last days of arrest I found out that we are allowed to get coffee from our relatives and even sugar in pieces. Everything is so tangled. We have to meet with people who are responsible for that and to make a list of what people can pass and what can’t.
- What about the temperature in the cells.
- When I was brought there it was cold. The weather was very cold. We wrote complaints. We even opened windows and shouted: People! Tell everyone that it’s cold here. And only then they started to do something, fixed something and it became warmer. We even started to take off our clothes. We sat in t-shirts.
- Did you have radio set in the cell? For example in Zhodino in cells there are radios.
- No, no. What are you talking about! They do not allow passing radios. They are afraid that prisoner would swallow batteries! They promise that after the renovation they will install radios in cells. They promised to do it 2007, are promising now.
- Did they let you to go out for walks in prison yard?
- Yes. Once. Administration even initiated it. We were not even ready for such a present. May be because they needed to put eavesdropping devices in cell or because of some other reason. But it was very pleasant.
- Very interesting. Because I know that other cells were not given the possibility to go out. What do you think should be changed in the conditions at Okrestino prison.
- Everything. Starting from the color of the walls. This is very important.
- How many people were there in your cell?
- 13 in the beginning, the cell is only for 12. After the mass arrests began they re-formed cells and only 7 left. 4 political and 3 ordinary people.
- What else impressed you during the time of arrest?
- Once in 3-4 days a woman came who cleaned up the toilet with the help of chlorine.
- What was your wife’s reaction to your arrest?
- It was OK. I felt her support. And she told me: You can fight. I feel the support of people and I can ask for help at any moment.
- As far as I know you were in one cell with Sergey Parsukevich, who during the arrest was beaten by some militiamen. What do you know about this incident?
- The day before that incident we made and hung on the window white-red-white flag. I thought it was one of factors that caused the entire problem. The authorities didn’t like it very much. During one of the inspections the man on duty told everybody to stand up. Sergey was the last who did it. And that man was standing near his shoes. Sergey asked him to move away so he could wear it. But that militiaman started to shout at him. After that he told him to go out of the cell to the corridor. We all heard how he shouted at him and said he would make him lots of trouble. He took him somewhere away. In some time we heard Sergey’s screams: “Help! They are killing me!” In some time warrant officer came and asked where Sergey’s aerosol was (he is an asthmatic). We understood that he was beaten. He didn’t return to our cell. They took his things and carried away.
- And the last question. What for did you get your 15 days of arrest according to the court’s ruling?
- You know very well that political prisoners get in prison for nothing. But officially it is: cursing in public, minor hooliganism etc. The same was with me