Come out and close the door

Sofia Sapga is freed from the Belarusian colony. She was able to survive in the monstrous ninth detachment, now she has to forget the past and not break in the present

Exactly half an hour before the news of the release from the Gomel colony of Russians Sofia Sapiei, we talked with the former political prisoner of the same colony Olga Klaskovskaya. Olga told what pressure Sofia was subjected to. At first, I could not understand why: usually they “press” those who have no guilty in the case and who is trying to resist already in the zone, goes to “deny”. Sofia, on the other hand, was absolutely pure: guilt, a deal with the investigation, a petition for pardon in the name of Lukashenko. An ideal prisoner for the administration. But - no.

“The administration of the colony considered Sonya to be her personal enemy-simply because she led her telegram channel“ The Black Book of Belarus ”, where the personal data of the security forces were published,” says Olga. - That is, they - the administration - hated it scary. Shortly before the liberation, I stood for the ninth detachment (they were forced to sew sheets for the entire colony), and I was called to the commission on punishments. The head of the colony, Tolstenkov, said: “Why are you climbing into the ninth detachment, you are sitting calmly in the third, and no one touches you. And in the ninth - Sapega! And while Sapega is sitting there, the detachment will suffer. ” The ninth detachment is the so-called “press squad”. All the conditions are created there so that people really suffer.

By the way, the “New-Europe” and lawyer Anton Gashinsky told about suffering, by the way, back in February: “They will give Sofia. But they will hold: freedom must be suffered. After the information appeared that a request for a transfer to Russia was filed to serve his sentence, I began to receive calls from Russians with threats: “We do not need a sapega! Let it stay there, we are not waiting for her! " You yourself understand how everything is “washed” there. ”

The lawyer was right. Sofia Sapieha’s petition for pardon was registered in the IK-4 office in Gomel on June 24 last year. She wrote that her youth and stupidity provoked her to crime. And three weeks earlier, Alexander Lukashenko publicly regretted Sofia and promised to transfer to Russia: “I feel sorry for the girl. This issue must be resolved. She is a Russian woman, we have a practice. We can transfer a Russian citizen to Russia - let it serve a deadline there, or they want something, then let them do it. ” It seemed that still just a little-a few days, a maximum of weeks-and Sapug would be released. But she was refused pardon. "Freedom must be suffered."

“We worked at the factory in one shift,” says Olga Klakovskaya, “and made friends.” Sofia is a very well -educated, intelligent, smart girl. And the administration hated her in the same way as those who rebelled. It was very difficult for her. The deputy chief of the colony according to the Kovalev regime once openly told me: “Why are you fasting up for a sappe? You will never call me pity for her! " And then the whole whitened and uttered a terrible phrase: “Yes, for what she did, she should sit on parash and eat shit!” I already got colder, I felt scared for Sonya. I think she was not completely dangled only because she wrote a petition for pardon. And before I was released, the head of the colony said: “If you want to get even with me, do not look for my address, ask Sapieha. Just keep in mind that I shoot very well. ” That is, for them it was a sore subject, because it was thanks to her work in the Telegram channel “Black Book of Belarus” their addresses and phones were in the public domain. And I can say that the petition written by Sonya may have saved her life.

But provocations were constantly arranged against her: she treated another girl with a cigarette - immediately punishment. Although everyone is divided by cigarettes, this is normal. But only political prisoners - and especially Sonya - are punished for this, deprived of dates and gears.

In this detachment, the toughest operative, Alexander Kuznetsov. Every day he came up with mockery of girls from the detachment.

For example, almost every day he gave the following task: half of the detachment is finely crumbling laundry soap, the second half of the detachment later whipping it with ruffs for the toilet in the foam. And then the whole detachment with this foam was washed by the floor, be sure to write eight with rags: there will be no well -written eights - non -reckoning. The girls called it a "foam party." Or in any weather - in the rain, snow, heat - built a detachment near the hut and forced to read the internal regulations. Or again: in any weather, he also demanded to take out the shkonka from the hut, and the girls were covered for hours in turn. There are specific prisoners who have a task to provoke conflicts with political. In the colony is already difficult, and in a press squad-not even twice, but three times. The ninth detachment is a concentration camp.

From this concentration camp, Sofia tried to free in various ways. After a refusal was received for a petition for pardon (for the formal reason “did not leave half the term”), the lawyer and relatives began to seek the transfer of Sapieha to serve his sentence to the Russian Federation. For this, at the request of the family, the Ministry of Justice of Russia was supposed to send a request to the Prosecutor General of Belarus and receive formal consent to the transfer of the prisoner, then in Russia a court must pass the term of imprisonment already under local legislation, and the Belarusian authorities must again agree with the period that the Russian court will establish. This is a complex bureaucratic procedure that can stretch for years. On June 1, the Presnensky Court of Moscow was supposed to take place on the transfer of Sapieha to Russia, but the judge decided to transfer it to Smolensk. And on June 7, Sofia was unexpectedly released - at the request of the governor of Primorye Oleg Kozhemyako. Immediately after his meeting with Lukashenko in Minsk, Sofia read a decree on pardon and released from the colony. Kozhemyako came to meet her, in the evening he wrote in his telegram channel: “Our countrywoman Sofya Sapga got a unique chance to start life again. She is free after my appeal to the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. With his fatherly understanding, he reacted to the requests of Sophia's parents about condescension. They very much asked to transfer them to the head of the fraternal state personally. Alexander Grigoryevich signed a decree on pardon immediately after our meeting. Only a really wise leader of the state and a strong man is capable of such a step. ”

“This was a surprise to all of us,” said Sofia, Sergei Dudich, the New-Evrope. - Probably, this is the good will of our president plus the participation of Governor Oleg Kozhemyako, that's all that happened. Now Sonya is doing well, although she herself may not yet realize that everything has ended. Her feelings overwhelm her, and she is very grateful to everyone who participated, including your newspaper. For your help and participation, and just for the fact that you have been with our family all these years. While Sonya has no plans, she just enjoys freedom. Arriving home, she immediately went to bed.

- Today rumors have already appeared that Sofia in Russia was going to attract propaganda to the case.

- Let me leave it yet. I can't comment on anything.

In conclusion - under house arrest, in a pre -trial detention center and in a colony - Sofia Sapega spent two years and two weeks. While she was in eight in the Gomel zone, she beat a soap foam, lost her dates and read the internal regulations in the cold, her former boyfriend Roman Protasevich, with whom they were detained, having planted the Ryanair aircraft in Minsk, managed to marry, give hundreds of interviews to the Russian and Belarusian propagandists and ideally integrate into Belarusian reality. According to lawyer Anton Gashinsky, it was Protasevich who testified against Sofia, which formed the basis of the prosecution. To forget the Herostratus is the task with which Sapega will undoubtedly cope, since she was able to survive and not break in the ninth detachment.