Tatyana Novikava: “Only an escort officer and me were at the trial”

Tatyana Novikava, an activist of the anti-nuclear movement, gave an  interview for charter97.org after her release from jail.

To start with, how do you feel? You had no medicines in the first days after the arrest.

I am still very weak. I am going to see a doctor.

I have thyroid cancer. I need to take medicines regularly. They took away my L-thyroxine tablets. I was deprived an opportunity to take them for 24 hours. A security guard returned the tablets after the trial. But I needed other medicines – tamoxifen. I was able to receive it only on the third day...

How were you arrested?

Russian nuclear physicist Andrei Ozharovsky and I were going to visit the Embassy of Russia to hand over an appeal to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The appeal pointed on a number of acute problems over construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus. We walked a few metres from home as men in mufti stopped us. They said we resembled dangerous criminals who rob houses in this district.

We were taken to the Maskouski district police department. Policemen established our identities and then accused us of swearing. I demanded to call a lawyer, but he was not called to the police department or to the court.

There were no witnesses at the trial. Only a judge, an escort officer and me were at the trial. I was given five days in custody.

Did you feel unwell at the trial?

Yes, I was feeling bad also in the police department after the trial. They called an ambulance. Doctors measured my blood pressure and asked policemen if they wanted to allow me to be taken to hospital. The escort policeman took them aside to talk. They returned to me, said goodbye and left.

How did you find confinement conditions?

I had better conditions than others in some sense. I was in cell number 1. The greatest number of inmates there was five. Girls from Young Front were there and then helped me a lot. It was difficult to sleep on bare boards without a sleeping bag in the first three days.

I refused to accept food, because I had liver pain. I ate only bread, drank water and juices I received in parcels.

They treated me well, but certain jail guards were too zealous. One of them searched the cell when his shift ends and he put on civilian clothes. He snatched Kasya Halitskaya's notebook out of her hands while she was writing letters to her friends.