Tallinn, Estonia — It has been 434 days since the family of jailed Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova heard from her, relatives said Wednesday, the activist’s 42nd birthday.
Kolesnikova, who is serving 11 years in prison for helping organize anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020, and other imprisoned opposition figures have been held incommunicado for months, raising fears for their well-being.
“Maria is serving four years behind bars and we have recently received information that her health is deteriorating and we do not know if she is receiving any treatment,” her sister Tatsiana Khomich told Belarusian media. Khomich added that the last letter the family received from Kolesnikova arrived in February 2023, and snippets of news about her are filtered through other inmates.
Belarus was rocked by mass protests after the 2020 election that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko his sixth term in office, a vote the West and the opposition denounced as fraudulent. Authorities responded by arresting more than 35,000 people and brutally beating thousands of them. Many leading opposition figures were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms, while others fled abroad.
With her short hair and vibrant smile, Kolesnikova was famous for appearing at protests and forming a heart with her hands.
The activist has been behind bars since September 2020. She was taken into custody after tearing up her passport at the border when authorities tried to expel her.
In 2022, Kolesnikova underwent abdominal surgery, but was quickly transferred back to prison. Then her father was allowed to visit her. Earlier this week, Belarus’ most prominent human rights group, Viasna, listed Kolesnikova among 93 political prisoners who have serious medical problems and could be on the verge of death.
Viasna has also reported that Kolesnikova has faced pressure and harassment from other inmates, who acted on instructions from prison officials.
Since March 2023, the activist has been held in complete isolation, Khomich said, and “information about her appears only if someone is placed in a cell next to her.”
Viasna has counted 1,401 political prisoners in Belarus. Among them is the group’s founder, Ales Bialiatski, who won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced into exile in Lithuania, called for solidarity with Kolesnikova on her birthday on Wednesday. “If the regime ‘is not at war against women,’ how come it is already the fourth year that Masha has spent this day behind bars?” Tsikhanouskaya said on social platform X.