The family of imprisoned Belarusian opposition figure hasn't heard from her for a year

FILE – Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, center, civil rights activist Veronika Zepkalo, right, also from Belarus, and Tatsiana Khomich, who accepted the Charlemagne Prize on behalf of her sister Maria Kolesnikova (photo), who is imprisoned in Belarus, stand at a peace rally after the award ceremony in Aachen, Germany, on Thursday, May 26, 2022. It's been a year since Kolesnikova last wrote a letter to her family from behind bars, her father says. No one has seen or heard from Kolesnikova, who is serving 11 years in prison for organizing anti-government rallies, since Feb. 12, 2023. (Bernd Thissen/dpa via AP, File)

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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — It’s been a year since the family of imprisoned Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova received a letter from her, and no one has seen or heard from her since then, her relatives and Western officials said Wednesday.

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 on end, raising fears for their well-being.

With her short-cropped hair and vibrant smile, Kolesnikova was famous for appearing at demonstrations and forming a heart with her hands.

“I can only pray that my daughter is alive, because the administration of the prison in (the city of) Gomel is not allowing visitation and is not responding to my letters and requests,” Kolesnikova’s father, Alexander Kolesnikov told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Minsk, the Belarusian capital.

Belarus was rocked by mass protests after an election in 2020 that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko his sixth term in office — a vote that was denounced by the West and the opposition as fraudulent. Authorities responded by arresting more than 35,000 people and brutally beating thousands of them. Many top opposition figures were arrested and given long prison terms, while others fled abroad.

Kolesnikova, 41, has been behind bars since September 2020. She was placed in custody after tearing up her passport at the border when authorities tried to expel her. She wrote her most recent letter to her family on Feb. 12, 2023, after she was hospitalized in critical condition.

“For more than a year, Maria has been in strict isolation, with no letters. Visitation from lawyers is not allowed, and her relatives are going crazy and have lost sleep,” Kolesnikov said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also expressed concern.

“We do not know how Maria is faring. But we know that her fight for freedom endures, that it was not in vain -– because courageous people are continuing it,” Baerbock said in a statement.

Human rights advocates say there are 1,416 political prisoners in Belarus, including 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski. Activists say the authorities deliberately isolate imprisoned opposition leaders.

The U.N. Committee on Human Rights has demanded repeatedly that Belarusian authorities implement “urgent protection measures” for those held incommunicado behind bars, but it has received no response.

“Incommunicado detention -– with a risk of enforced disappearance -– is indicative of a strategy to punish political opponents and hide evidence of their ill-treatment and torture by law enforcement and prison authorities,” the committee said in a statement.

For over a year, no one has seen or heard from Viktar Babaryka, a presidential hopeful who sought to challenge Lukashenko in 2020 but was jailed and given a 14-year prison term, his lawyer, Natalia Matskevich told AP on Wednesday. Another opposition leader serving a 14-year sentence, Mikola Statkevich, hasn’t been in touch with the outside world since Feb. 9, 2023, Matskevich said.

Kolesnikova’s ally, jailed lawyer Maxim Znak, also sent his last letter on Feb. 9, 2023, she said, and Siarhei Tsikhanouski, the imprisoned husband of opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, last saw his lawyers on March 9, 2023.

Matskevich, who also represents Tsikhanouski, said authorities added him and Babaryka to figures the country has labeled terrorists and extremists, and they are not allowed to receive money in their prison accounts to buy personal items.

Tsikhaonuskaya urged Western governments to intervene, saying the situation “raises very serious concerns.”

“Access to political prisoners by lawyers providing them with legal assistance has been blocked. Correspondence and telephone calls to relatives have also been stopped. The condition of many of those who find themselves in an incommunicado situation is aggravated by serious illnesses, which in turn gives rise to justified fears as to whether these people are even alive,” she said.

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