Relatives Persuaded Political Prisoner Syarhei Skrabets to End Hunger Strike :: Charter'97 :: News

Syarhei Skrabets’ wife, who visited him on June 16 in Brest remand prison on the 33rd day of hunger strike, managed to persuade him to end the protest. “He has promised me that,” told Alyaksandra Skrabets to the press service of the UCP after the meeting with Syarhei.

- He feels bad. His sleep is bad. He says that it is not a sleep, but some kind of a raving. He has nausea, weakness and headache all the time. I saw that after half an hour of sitting and talking with me he was cold, as energy is needed for body temperature preservation. But where to take it from?

- Have you told Syarhei that other people also ask him to stop the hunger strike?

- Certainly, I told him about it at once. And I brought newspapers to him. I told that many people are calling, including reporters and his acquaintances. Everybody is asking him to end the hunger strike.

- How is he going to come out from the hunger strike in the conditions of the prison?

- It is very difficult, indeed. But do you believe that somebody would release him? His mother was crying as we went to prison: “Whom should we address to? He cannot run away now, as he is so weak”.
Is he really such a dangerous criminal? Have he ever failed to come when he was summoned for questioning? Let him return home for a weak at least, to come out of the fast. He had never tried to escape.

- How has it happened that his mother, who came with you, could not visit him?

- She was so upset, she was crying. We did not know that people are allowed to come by two for the meeting with a prisoner. They saw that we had arrived together, but we were not told about such a possibility. And later we saw other people entering by two and by three.

- And what is Syarhei doing? Does he read anything?

- I asked him whether he could grasp anything. And he says that he is reading all the time. He reads newspapers, Chekhov and other books.

- How do you feel?

- I feel a little bit better. As if we have overcome some stage. Tomorrow other difficulties are to come. But now, as I have persuaded him to stop the fast, I feel as if I have come to Minsk with a victory.