Imprisoned leading representative of the Belarusian opposition, Marya Kalesnikava, was allowed to meet her father briefly on Tuesday after a long period without any contact with the outside world. Her first photos after more than a year have been leaked to the public, TASR writes, according to a Reuters report.
Two photos of Kalesnikova, one with her father and one of her alone, were published on the Telegram network by Raman Pratasevich, a former imprisoned dissident who claims to be currently acting as an intermediary between the Belarusian authorities and Belarusians living in exile abroad. Kalesnikova’s associates believe that the images were taken in a prison hospital.
“I am deeply relieved that Maryja Kalesnikava was allowed to meet her father. For more than 600 days, they kept her in isolation, starving and without contact with her family,” Sviatlana Cichanovská, the exiled leader of the Belarusian opposition, wrote on the X platform.
An associate of Cichanovská told Reuters that the meeting probably took place as a result of pressure from the international community. However, according to him, there is no indication that the release of Kalesnikava or other leading representatives of the Belarusian dissident is about to be released.
Kalesnikavová is a political activist and one of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition. Before the presidential elections in 2020, she was the coordinator of the campaign staff of Viktar Babaryka, who was ultimately prevented from running by the authorities. Kalesnikavová subsequently supported Cichanovská in the elections, who, according to the opposition’s claims, defeated the long-time president Alexander Lukashenko in the vote, who was declared the election winner by the Central Election Commission. However, the West does not recognize Lukashenko as the president of Belarus.
Shortly after the elections, on September 7, 2020, Kalesnikava was kidnapped in Minsk by masked men who took her to the Ukrainian border and ordered her to cross it. However, she refused to do so and instead tore up her passport. She was then taken back to Minsk and imprisoned. In 2021, a court in Minsk sentenced her to 11 years in prison, finding her guilty of conspiracy to gain power and other crimes.
Human rights organizations consider Kalesnikava a political prisoner, leading world politicians demand her release. Her colleagues, including Cichanovská, claimed at the end of August that the activist was in an alarming state of health. They claimed that she had lost a lot of weight and was being held in solitary confinement in terrible conditions, with reports of her only based on the statements of her fellow prisoners.
