Our hero is Vitaŭt Siŭčyk, a journalist and host of the program "Bezviz" on Belsat. Last year, Marina Kasinerova, co-founder of the organization helping political prisoners "Dissidentby," suggested to Vitaŭt to become the guardian of a political prisoner. And he chose journalist Dzianis Ivashyn - for several reasons.
We are publishing the thoughts of Vitaŭt Siŭčyk as part of a joint information campaign of our Foundation and the Dissidentby initiative “Untill All are Free”.
"I am familiar with Dzianis's work, I follow his journalistic investigations. Dzianis is a journalist whom one wants to emulate. Additionally, I feel a certain spiritual closeness - we are both Greek Catholics, our views on many things coincide. I am very outraged by the unlawful sentence imposed on Dzianis - 13 years and 1 month of imprisonment. It is simply revenge for his professional activities, particularly for exposed Berkut soldiers, who fled from trial in Ukraine and joined Lukashenko's service to continue political repression - this time in Belarus.
Let's recall Dzianis Ivashyn's story. Dzianis worked as a freelance correspondent for the newspaper "Novy Chas" and is known for his investigations into the influence of the "Russian world" on Belarus and Syria, about the scandalous construction in Kurapaty, and the transfer of former Ukrainian Berkut soldiers to the Belarusian security forces. In 2021, he was detained by KGB officers for interference in police activities, and six months later, a second charge was added - state treason. In prison, Dzianis Ivashyn is being mistreated: his letters and telegrams were not delivered to him, he has been placed in solitary confinement at least five times, . Because of this, Ivashyn suffered a heart attack.
The authorities want us to get used to innocent Belarusians being behind bars while criminals are free. We cannot get used to this; we must constantly demand the release of people. It is important to take care of political prisoners so that they and their families do not feel abandoned. It is very important that information about political prisoners is constantly in the public eye, that their names are mentioned daily in the media.
Being a guardian, I occasionally publish a report on Facebook - regarding political prisoner. Dzianis's wife, Olga Ivashina, helps me a lot in this, who has spent in prison every day since the beginning of his imprisonment - for 1134 days already! - writes about her husband.
I am sure that it is her heroic efforts that contribute to the fact that the family keeps in touch with Dzianis - they correspond, from time to time the political prisoner is allowed to call his relatives, and in early April they were allowed to meet his mother. The family has to fight for such basic things.
As a journalist, I try to mention Dzianis as often as possible in my work - including in interviews with politicians, experts, and official representatives of foreign countries. In particular, in a conversation with the Ambassador of Ukraine to Belarus Igor Kizim, I asked about the idea of exchanging Dzianis Ivashyn for Belarusian citizens convicted in Ukraine who fought on the side of the aggressor. Especially since Dzianis is of Ukrainian origin and worked for the Ukrainian media outlet InformNapalm.
In every Facebook post, I leave Dzianis's mailing address, thereby encouraging people to write to him. I myself have also sent postcards to the political prisoner - from the presidential palace in Warsaw and from St. Peter's Square in the Vatican. As far as I know, they did not reach the recipient. But at least the colony administration saw them and made sure that we did not forget about Dzianis, we carefully followed his fate, and demand his release".
We are publishing the thoughts of Vitaŭt Siŭčyk as part of a joint information campaign of our Foundation and the Dissidentby initiative “Untill All are Free”.
"I am familiar with Dzianis's work, I follow his journalistic investigations. Dzianis is a journalist whom one wants to emulate. Additionally, I feel a certain spiritual closeness - we are both Greek Catholics, our views on many things coincide. I am very outraged by the unlawful sentence imposed on Dzianis - 13 years and 1 month of imprisonment. It is simply revenge for his professional activities, particularly for exposed Berkut soldiers, who fled from trial in Ukraine and joined Lukashenko's service to continue political repression - this time in Belarus.
Let's recall Dzianis Ivashyn's story. Dzianis worked as a freelance correspondent for the newspaper "Novy Chas" and is known for his investigations into the influence of the "Russian world" on Belarus and Syria, about the scandalous construction in Kurapaty, and the transfer of former Ukrainian Berkut soldiers to the Belarusian security forces. In 2021, he was detained by KGB officers for interference in police activities, and six months later, a second charge was added - state treason. In prison, Dzianis Ivashyn is being mistreated: his letters and telegrams were not delivered to him, he has been placed in solitary confinement at least five times, . Because of this, Ivashyn suffered a heart attack.
The authorities want us to get used to innocent Belarusians being behind bars while criminals are free. We cannot get used to this; we must constantly demand the release of people. It is important to take care of political prisoners so that they and their families do not feel abandoned. It is very important that information about political prisoners is constantly in the public eye, that their names are mentioned daily in the media.
Being a guardian, I occasionally publish a report on Facebook - regarding political prisoner. Dzianis's wife, Olga Ivashina, helps me a lot in this, who has spent in prison every day since the beginning of his imprisonment - for 1134 days already! - writes about her husband.
I am sure that it is her heroic efforts that contribute to the fact that the family keeps in touch with Dzianis - they correspond, from time to time the political prisoner is allowed to call his relatives, and in early April they were allowed to meet his mother. The family has to fight for such basic things.
As a journalist, I try to mention Dzianis as often as possible in my work - including in interviews with politicians, experts, and official representatives of foreign countries. In particular, in a conversation with the Ambassador of Ukraine to Belarus Igor Kizim, I asked about the idea of exchanging Dzianis Ivashyn for Belarusian citizens convicted in Ukraine who fought on the side of the aggressor. Especially since Dzianis is of Ukrainian origin and worked for the Ukrainian media outlet InformNapalm.
In every Facebook post, I leave Dzianis's mailing address, thereby encouraging people to write to him. I myself have also sent postcards to the political prisoner - from the presidential palace in Warsaw and from St. Peter's Square in the Vatican. As far as I know, they did not reach the recipient. But at least the colony administration saw them and made sure that we did not forget about Dzianis, we carefully followed his fate, and demand his release".
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