Mikita Sasim: “Your Solidarity Invigorated Me” :: Charter'97 :: News

Today, on the Day of Solidarity, a young leader Mikita Sasim was released from Baranavichy pre-trial detention center.

Thousands of people all over the world were fighting for Mikita Sasim’s release. Amnesty International recognized him a prisoner of conscience. People from different parts of the world were sending letters to him in prison. Rallies in his support were held in Belarus and abroad. Human rights organizations of the world demanded the Belarusian authorities to release the political prisoner. Right after release Mikita Sasim gave his first interview to the Charter’97 press center.

- Mikita, where have you been all that time today? As far as I know, it had been announced that you would to be released in the morning, but you “disappeared” from the prison and nobody knew where your whereabouts…

- It is really so, people are usually released in the morning, but I was in the detention center until the noon. Then I was taken to draw document for my release. When this process was finished, two policemen arrived to the detention center. They stated that I should g with them to a police department. I couldn’t disagree, as I was in the detention center still. I was taken to the police department in a paddy wagon, I could not see whether somebody had come to meet me… In the police department a file on me was created. I do not know why they took me under convoy. Usually a person comes to a police department independently to register. Perhaps in order to prevent people from meeting me near the detention center. But I came back to the detention center from the police department. My mother and friends have been waiting for me there since the early morning.

- Three months ago, in March, you have been taken to prison right after being operated. How do you feel now?

- Everything is fine now. Right after operation it was hard for me to stay in the cell. My stomach muscles were aching for two or three weeks. Later I regained health, as I am young.

- How the “capture operation” looked like? We have this story only from hearsay.

- On March 14 my friends and me where standing in a yard of some house near metro station “Frunzenskaya”. We were five, but a bus arrived with about 30 riot policemen. They seized us and took us to a police department. In 15 minutes everybody was released, but I was left there. A report was drawn up against me for violating an article 156, traditional for oppositionists – petty hooliganism. Then I was placed to a ward. Suddenly my stomach started aching terribly, an ambulance was called in. I was diagnosed an appendicitis. But the ambulance was not allowed to take me to a hospital. I spent an hour in the police department. Then convoy arrived, and they took me to a hospital number 9 in Minsk.

Policemen stayed with me in a ward all the time. In an hour I was on operating table. Policemen were not allowed to enter the operating room however. On the next morning, when I woke up after operation, I saw a policeman in the ward again. When he saw that I had regained consciousness, he handcuffed me to the bed. I could not even go to lavatory. I asked him to take me there, but he refused. Finally I started to drag the bed after me, right into the corridor (that was 6 hours after the operation- Charter’97). I delivered an ultimatum to the policemen whether to take me to lavatory or I would go there with the bed. Doctors and nurses gathered in the ward. Finally, handcuffs were removed.

On the next day policemen from Baranavichy arrived to the hospital. They said that I was charged with draft evasion. Doctors could not decide for a long time, whether I can be transported to another region on the second day after operation or not. After some pressure on them they said that it is possible. But it was difficult for me to walk, it was prohibited t sit for me. But I was transported to Baranavichy sitting, as the car was shaking, and I felt pain. In Baranavichy I was placed in a separate ward. Two policemen guarded me there. They were with me while dressing was made for me, they accompanied me to a lavatory… In 5 days I was transferred to a pre-trial detention center.

- To your mind, what made policemen treat you like a dangerous special criminal?

- Naturally, it is connected with my political activism. Since 2001 I have been detained at protest actions hundreds of times. Sometimes I was seized in a street for 2-3 times a day. The article “draft evasion” does not envisage imprisonment. A person could be detained only in case of escaping after giving a written undertaking not to leave the place. And I was not hiding from anybody.

- Did the military enlistment office act on the order “from the top” in this case? As far as we know, you even didn’t manage to complete the medical examination when you were accused of evasion from military service.

- Of course, they acted on the order of the powers. In such cases they do not show initiative very often. I came to the military enlistment office when I received summons, and, certainly, I didn’t come there if I received nothing. The court proved I hadn’t come to the military enlistment office only once - on January 14. But to my mind, I had a valid reason - I spent one week coming there only to get a new summon to come there the next day. So, day after day they told me “to come tomorrow”. Finally I gave up and left for Minsk on business. And then they accused me of “impudent evasion”. It’s true that I haven’t finished the medical examination for the military office. Moreover, the military enlistment office sent me to Minsk for a medical examination in a few months after an OMON officer had thrashed me at the action in the memory of the missed (September 16, 2005 - Charter’97 comments). I know for sure that KGB officers visited the hospital practically every day and despite all my complaints I was eventually found absolutely healthy.

- What can you say about the legal proceedings on your case?

- It was fun. A real show. Not a play - plays are staged, and that was a pure improvisation. A witness for the prosecution from the military enlistment office was telling completely contradictory things for 20 minutes. Testimonies were confusing, nobody could say anything definite. And the sentence was pretty usual. Recently I’ve read that convictions are passed for 99 per cent of the accused in Belarus. So I’m not surprised - the proceedings are obviously politically motivated.

- The conditions of isolation cells are well known. But as far as we know, you were kept in a cell with 50 people.

- Yes, it’s true. I spent 4 days there. It is frightful. There was no air at all. One cigarette was smoking for 10 minutes - it just didn’t burn without the air. There was only one small window in the cell, and we took turns to sit by it, to take a sip of the air. No place to sleep, no place to sit, no place to walk. We were packed like sardines. At night we slept on beds by turns. Actually I was kept in two cells. The first was designed for 14 places, and there were 18-20 people, which is pretty OK. But it was damp there, again no air, which was rather annoying. In March we could slightly open the window. It was cold and stuffy at the same time.

- How did you get along with your cellmates?

- Very well indeed. They all understood why I was there, and in particular after they had heard my name on the TV, read the newspapers “Belorusy i rynok”, “Svobodnyie novosti”, “Belgazeta”, “Intex-press” that my mother gave me. Even some policemen expressed support.

- Did you know what was going on in the country on the elections day, after it, about the camp, the Day of Will of March 25?

- I still was in the hospital on the elections day. The only window to the outer world for me was a TV-set with the state channels. Later, when I was transferred to an isolation cell, and I started receiving letters - hundreds of letters from Belarus and all over the world - I learned what was going on in the country. I admire the courage of the people who came to the square, stood in the camp, and went out to the streets on March 25. I should have been there as well. But the struggle for the freedom of Belarus is on, and we all will be together very soon.

- This is the Solidarity Day today, and you are exonerated. Thousands of people all over the world claimed their solidarity with you, they struggled for your exoneration, they came out in pickets, wrote letters of solidarity and claims of protest. Is solidarity winning?

- It is. And I have sensed it myself. I am very grateful to all who supported me, who sent letters to the prison for me, who took part in the actions keeping my portrait, who lit a candle for me… I have experienced the power of solidarity. And it was solidarity that I got strength from.