Isolated for 18 months - Maria Kolesnikova weighs only 45 kilograms

Isolated for 18 months - Maria Kolesnikova weighs only 45 kilograms Article from FOCUS Online • 2 hours • 2 minutes reading time Maria Kolesnikova, a well-known Belarusian opposition activist, is currently serving an eleven-year prison sentence in a penal camp near Gomel. She has been isolated from her family for 18 months. Her health is said to be deteriorating. The Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova is currently serving an eleven-year prison sentence. According to "AP", she has been isolated from her family for 18 months. Her health is also said to be deteriorating. Her father is said to have tried several times in vain to visit her in the penal camp near Gomel. "If she doesn't call or write, that means she doesn't want to," the prison director is said to have said. Kolesnikova became a symbol of the resistance against President Alexander Lukashenko after the 2020 presidential election in Belarus. In September 2020, she was arrested after preventing her deportation by tearing up her passport. Refusal of medical help? Former inmates report that Kolesnikova was held in a tiny cell and made several desperate requests for medical help. In November 2022, she was hospitalized, according to AP. A former prisoner said that Kolesnikova had not spoken to the guards for months and that letters to her were torn up in front of her eyes. Tatsiana Khomich, the activist's sister, talks about Kolesnikova's weight loss: "She weighs only 45 kilograms," says Khomich. "They are slowly killing Maria." Is Lukashenko using prisoners to improve relations? The UN Human Rights Commission and the European Parliament have repeatedly called for Kolesnikova's release. President Lukashenko denies the existence of political prisoners. However, Minsk recently released 115 prisoners for health and political reasons. According to Belarusian analyst Alexander Friedman, Lukashenko could try to improve relations with the EU and reduce dependence on Russia.