Ales Bialiatski: I will remain in jail at least until autumn

Political prisoner Ales Bialiatski doesn't believe he may be released soon.

The head of Viasna human rights centre wrote a letter to deputy head of the Belarusian School Society Tamara Matskevich, Radio Racyja reports.

“It's most likely that I will have to remain in jail at least until autumn and later. It's okay. I need to think about my personal development and about Belarus. All ask me about my health and back pain, but it's not important whether I have pains or not, because I don't exist if my Motherland doesn't exist, as my friend Eduard Akulin writes. I need to 'keep my watch unceasingly through black night and through white day' as our spiritual father Yanka Kupala wrote,” the political prisoner says.

According to Tamara Matskevich, Ales Bialiatski is not a person who can be broken easily.

“He jokes and supports us even in hard situations. He is very strong,” the deputy head of the Belarusian School Society stressed.

The human rights defender wrote in the letter that he wants his latest book “Enlightened by Belarusianism” to be distributed free of charge among teachers.

Ales Bialiatski serves his term in correctional colony No. 2 in Babruisk. On November 24, 2011, he was found guilty of tax fraud on a large scale and sentenced to 4.5 years in a medium security correctional colony and confiscation of property. The reason for the prosecution was his bank accounts in Lithuania and Poland. The court ignored that fact that he had spent the money on the accounts on human rights activity.