“A political prisoner’s worst fear is to be forgotten.”

“When you’re incommunicado, prisoners have no contact with their lawyers or family members, which is their right,” democracy expert Katie LaRoque said. “Incommunicado detention is a form of psychological torture designed to have political prisoners think that the outside world has forgotten them.”

LaRoque, Freedom House’s deputy director for policy and advocacy, was speaking at a recent panel discussion on political prisoners in Belarus and the few who are held under incommunicado detention – a form of confinement that provides inmates with minimal to no access to the outside world. 

The virtual event, titled “Not Forgotten: Political Imprisonment and Incommunicado Detention in Belarus” and organized by RFE/RL and Freedom House – shed light on the actions that President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime has taken against its critics for decades, but never with the ferocity it has unleashed since the 2020 presidential election. 

See also: ‘My Civic Duty’ Unique among the panoply of groups aiding victims of the Belarusian regime, Volnya helps freed political prisoners rebuild shattered lives.

In response to Lukashenka’s controversial election for a sixth term – considered fraudulent by many Western nations – protests rapidly spread across Belarus. Public outrage led to a harsh crackdown by the authorities, who have detained over 35,000 people since 2020, the Associated Press reported in April. Of those, according to the human rights center Viasna, over 5,000 people have been subjected to politically motivated trials, with almost 1,400 currently imprisoned on various charges. At least five people have died in prison since 2020, according to Freedom House. 

Eight of these prisoners are reportedly being held incommunicado, which LaRoque – Freedom House’s deputy director for policy and advocacy and moderator of the discussion – explained as “a phenomenon where the imprisoning regime cuts off some prisoners from all contact with the outside world.”

Belarusian journalist and researcher Hanna Liubakova, a speaker at the event, said in a subsequent interview that the regime “does not feel the consequences” of demands from the United Nations for more humane treatment of prisoners and sanctions implemented by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the EU. She noted Russia’s support for the Belarusian regime, calling this a way of “paying back” and “providing benefits” for Lukashenka in return for his helping the Russian war effort in Ukraine. 

“When it comes to such great human rights violations, these sanctions that the West imposed have not been really painful for the regime,” Liubakova said.

A friend of Liubakova’s, Ihar Losik, is currently held under incommunicado detention and has not been heard from for over a year. Losik, a journalist for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, was detained in June 2020 on charges of the “organization of mass riots” and “incitement to hatred,” according to RFE/RL. 

Liubakova said former inmates have shared that in an act of protest, Losik attempted to cut his wrists, though there was “no threat to his life.” Liubakova also said Losik is deprived of proper clothing despite cold temperatures and he cannot buy anything in prison even if money is transferred to his account.

“He also has a daughter and he misses her a lot, and this sentence is 15 years. The fact that he is away from his daughter imposed huge pressures on him, so we are trying to raise as much attention as possible,” Liubakova said. 

Another panelist at the event, Olga Loyko, was a political prisoner herself for 10 months before she was freed and left the country. The former chief editor of the political and economic sections of TUT.BY – a popular Belarusian news site that has since been shut down – Loyko said the authorities accused the site of publishing “prohibited information” in 2021 following the outbreak of protests. 

Although she was freed with a few other prisoners, Loyko’s charges were not dropped and her name remains on a list of people “involved in terrorist activities,” which forced her to leave the country and all of her property behind. Now, Loyko is the editor-in-chief of Plan B media, which focuses on Belarusian politics and the economy – her areas of expertise. 

“When I was in prison, I understood and felt this support from the international community,” Loyko said. “When you’re in prison, the most important thing is to find support and to maintain hope, and they knew that I was recognized as a political prisoner, and they knew that people all over the world are interested in our lives. Political prisoners’ lives matter.”

Liubakova, Loyko, and LaRoque urged attendees of the event to write letters and postcards and send donations to political prisoners in Belarus, demonstrating that they are still in people’s minds. 

“A political prisoner’s worst fear is to be forgotten,” LaRoque said. “The thought of being abandoned by the international community and left to endure an unfair sentence without recognition or support can be more painful than the physical conditions of confinement.” 

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Lydie Lake is an editorial assistant at Transitions. She studies journalism and political science at George Washington University.