Gennadiy Fedynich's Health Deteriorated Badly In Prison

• 19.09.2025, 16:34

In detention, he developed diabetes.

Released on September 11 and immediately deported abroad, political prisoner Gennady Fedynich, the longtime head of the independent trade union of radio electronics industry workers, told the trade union website IndustriAll how prison has worsened his health.

"Health is bad. A lot of diseases. I developed diabetes in prison. I was planning a hernia operation for April 2022, but I was arrested earlier. Good people in prison warned me: if they offered me an operation in Minsk, it might be the last one. They said that people like me could be simply "written off" on the grounds of a "heart attack". I am grateful to them for their sincerity and awareness.

In prison Fedynich, like other political prisoners, received information about what was happening in the country and the world mainly from the state press. According to him, he subscribed to the newspaper "Minsk Pravda," but read it "between the lines."

He also mentioned his trial, which sentenced him to nine years, although he could have been sentenced to 12:

"In the end, we were given nine years. I asked the judge: why not twelve, the maximum? She said: "You're pensioners." I said, 'Well, your kindness has no limits.'"

And he even dared to joke with the prison authorities:

"The head of the operations department called me in and asked me what I planned to do. I said: "If you give me a task, I can set up a trade union organization." He got scared and said, "What?! No, not that." I said: "Just kidding, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel."