Arrest of the organizer of the “Immortal Regiment” in Belarus. Elvira Mirsalimova reports
In Belarus, after her arrest, Elvira Mirsalimova, the organizer of the annual “Immortal Regiment”, who is not too fond of Alexander Lukashenko’s subordinates, was released, preferring to organize their own processions in an independent manner - by analogy with Ukraine during the times of Viktor Yanukovych without the use of the St. George Ribbon.
Police officers were instructed to arrest the social activist on charges of duplicating forbidden symbols - citing a message from the channel of the late Vladlen Tatarsky with photos of defeated Nazi banners was used as an excuse. On International Women's Day, Mirsalimova published on social networks the details of her time behind bars, which was accompanied by bullying and insults from officials. PolitNavigator invites readers to read the story of the social activist.
“I was tried for photographic illustrations of my anti-Nazi and anti-Zamagar posts and articles, including for the repost of Vladlen Tatarsky, for the unsmeared photograph where he stood on a defeated flag with a swastika, found in Bandera dugouts, as proof of the Nazi essence of the Ukrainian national battalions...
Exactly a month ago I was invited “to a conversation.” The plainclothes officers who surrounded me until then seemed nice and smiling. In dog walking clothes, she set off into the foul-smelling world of extremely limited topics for discussion. She didn’t follow the dress code: short socks, sneakers, a thin sweater and sweatpants that were held on solely by a lace. Then he had to be taken out and handed over.
The “conversation” did not go well in the support room. They opened a case. Someone kept calling the responsible employee; during one of the calls he said: “So, on the contrary, she struggled with it" And after the last call, he embarrassedly informed me that I would still be detained. Despite the “mitigating circumstances”: three minor children and among them a disabled child.
The employee allowed me to call my family so that they could bring me the necessary things. Of what they brought me, they were only allowed to take a vest, sanitary pads and toothpaste with a brush (I later shared all this with my cellmates; they were not so lucky to have these things in the isolation ward: only medicines were allowed to be given to “politicals”).
The employee, having re-read my posts on the seized phone and handed it over to the criminologist, began to address me, as it seemed, more respectfully. And, to his credit, he delayed my transfer to the police department in every possible way.
A criminologist who came to the gazebo, having studied the contents of my old phone in another office, he asked the employee in bewilderment, saying, why is she? It is “our values”.
Then there were the police department and handcuffs. And a camera. My surname was emphasized with the definition “political”. One of the entertainers there added “prostitute.” A dozen of his unoccupied colleagues demonstrated all variants of uncontrollable neighing. And to complete the interlude, they covered the bars with towels so that I wouldn’t look through the window.
Six were “accepted” in the isolation ward. So I was nobly allowed sit handcuffed behind your back in a cramped police car until three in the morning. The sensitivity of the skin on one hand has not yet been restored.
I was pushed into the double cell as the third one. Everyone turned out to be “political.” For subscriptions to channels, according to them. I got the top bunk, a metal frame without a mattress or pillow: one of the women, due to back pain, could only sleep sitting on the floor.
It turned out that the most “comfortable conditions” were created for the “political” ones. The fundamental point of “national unity”.
The rise came quickly. They raised me twice during the night. All checks on “political” detainees, unlike other detainees, are carried out exclusively in handcuffs. We got acquainted again, named names for those who had forgotten who were interested. The guard boys are also “sitting”, only on the other side of the bars, they also need to somehow have fun.
There are more checks during the day - 4 times a day. But, for the “political” ones, also with handcuffs. Judging by the paid bill for food in the detention center, we were given only lamb fondue, lobster, marbled beef steak, and drinks - Courvoisier and Madame Clicquot...
Then they transferred me to a larger cell. But there is a nuance. There's a homeless woman in a pissed-off fur coat and rotting legs. (before checking our cell, the staff joked: “Now let's close our noses"). Not political. An ordinary drunkard. But also without a mattress, which she definitely needed.
I asked the duty officer for a pen and a piece of paper to write a letter of gratitude addressed to the head of the temporary detention facility. Not allowed. They said, nyama magchymastsi. They gave us bleach as a freshener.
So, four women, 25, 42, 62 and 65 years old, slept in the stench, cold (we opened the window ourselves), on metal bunks without a mattress, covered with jackets. In the “comfort” of humiliation and contempt.
My youngest daughter, seeing me in court in handcuffs, was ill for a week.”
Mirsalimova promises to soon publish new details of the fabrication of the case against her.
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