The Washington Post: World Must Demand Answer: Where's Viktar Babaryka?

• 19.05.2023, 9:41

The authoritative edition has called to save the Belarusian political prisoners.

The American edition of The Washington Post published an editorial about the Belarusian political prisoner Viktar Babaryka. It lists facts about political repression in Belarus, as well as states that the whole world must demand an answer from Aliaksandr Lukashenka.

WP reminded that there has been no contact with Babaryka since February, and recently he was hospitalized and now it's not clear where the ex-banker is. The same situation is with many known political prisoners, the pressure on the lawyers continues.

The newspaper notes that previously it was at least possible to maintain contact with political prisoners in Belarus, but now the situation has changed: "Now the regime seems to use even more repressive tactics, like in North Korea, where prisoners disappear for months or years".

"The whole world must demand an answer from the dictator: where is Viktar Babaryka? Show us that he is alive. What has become of the others? We mustn't allow Belarusian political prisoners to disappear," concluded the editorial board.

We remind that Viktar Babaryka's relatives and lawyers have been looking for him for more than 20 days. In the evening of April 26 it was reported that Viktar Babaryka, detainee in Navapolatsk penal colony #1, was hospitalized in the local hospital during the night of April 25 - allegedly with traces of beatings and pneumothorax. In the morning of April 27, the police confirmed to his relatives that he had been hospitalized in the surgical ward. The state authorities refused to comment on the situation.

Currently there is no contact with many well-known political prisoners in Belarus. For instance, there is no exact information about the condition and the whereabouts of Viktar Babaryka and there has been no news from Maksim Znak and Ihar Losik since February.