Ales Bialiatski: "I will never forget the clang of heavy iron prison doors"

A letter from Ales Bialiatski, written on 4 February, the day when 1.5 years passed since his arrest, has reached the addressee.

"What can I say, the time keeps going on. It hasn't stopped even here", after this laconic commentary Ales Bialiatski illustrates his feelings on this occasion with a picture sent to him by Canadian schoolchildren. He writes that he is very fond of the well-known slogans which is often written in letters of solidarity – "Never Lose Hope!".

"There are many symbols in this picture by a Philip who I don't know: two flags – Lukashenka's and Canadian, a lock near one of them and the key – near the other. Everything is quite clear..."

"At present the key is in somebody else's hands", writes Ales, recollecting the clang of the prison doors behind his back. "A year ago, when I was kept in the pre-trial prison in Zhodzina, I had to walk through 21 doors in order to get from my cell to the room where I met with my counsel, the doors in the underground corridors between the buildings. All of them opened in front of me and then closed, clanging behind my back. They dissected the space into small portions. The future and the passed were cut away by them, and you remained in the present moment, without the past and the future, accompanied by a guard who held the keys in his hand."

Bear in mind that the head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" and vice-President of the International Federation for Human Rights Ales Bialiatski was arrested on 4 August 2011 in Minsk. He was kept in the pre-trial prison in Valadarski Street in Minsk during the investigation and the trial which took place on 2-24 November 2011. On 1 December 2011 he was transferred to the Zhodzina prison #8. In February 2012 he spent 11 more days in the Minsk pre-trial prison #1 while being transferred to the Babruisk colony #2, where he has been kept since 28 February 2012.