An unprecedented hapun

In Belarus, mass searches were arranged and more than 80 people were detained in one day. Among them are relatives of political prisoners

On January 23, in Belarus, according to the Vasna human rights center, 84 people were detained for “participation in extremist formation” and “financing of extremist activity”. Among the detainees were relatives of political prisoners and former political prisoners.

In parallel, local authorities recognized the extremist initiative of Ineedhelpby, which helps to pay for products to families of repressed and compatriots in a difficult financial situation after repression. Irina Khalip talks about the details of what happened for Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Hapun is not only a Belarusian word, but also a Belarusian phenomenon. The origin of the word is the verb “hapatska” (grab). You can literally translate as a “grip” or draw analogies with familiar Russians “vintage”. But if in Russian this word sounds comical, then in Belarusian-understandable and convincing. This is the name of the tactics of the Belarusian police under Alexander Lukashenko, who experiences animal fear of any manifestation of not only activity, but also of any “double -smater”, as well as the security forces of complete freedom of action without any restrictions.

On January 23, a hapun was held in Belarus, which had not happened for a long time. It is clear that after the mass shares of 2020, people happened to be detained by hundreds. Of course, Belarusians are almost every day arrested for participating in those August protests of 2020. In power offices, they still watch videos of Minsk marches, setting up personalities.

But since Belarus made a return jump in time and came to her thirty -seventh, there have been no such large -scale campaigns.

84 detainees - the data of the human rights center Vasna called such data late in the evening. And this is not arbitrarily taken from old videos - these are former political prisoners and relatives of the current political prisoners. According to Viesna, in the KGB decrees the articles of the Criminal Code “Financing Extremist Activities” and “Participation in Extremist Formation” were appeared.

Among the detainees are Marina Adamovich, the wife of the leader of the Belarusian opposition Nikolai Statkevich. Nikolai was arrested back in May 2020 with blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky. On December 14, 2021, he was sentenced to 14 years of special regime and sent to serve the deadline for colony No. 13 in Gluboko. There he immediately ended up in a schizo, after - in the PKT, and so in a circle. He is deprived of calls, programs and dates. Already almost a year - since February last year - there is no news of Statkevich. Even a lawyer is not allowed to be allowed to him, and standard answers come to the Department of Punishment of Punishment Marina: the prisoner did not apply for a meeting with a lawyer. It is only known that in the colony, a 67-year-old political prisoner was ill with Covid four times, but even medical parcels with permitted medicines returned to Marina. They were not accepted.

In November, rumors leaked from the same colony No. 13 that Nicholas, perhaps, was no longer alive. Marina did not comment on anything: she, perhaps, is the most experienced wife of the political prisoner and perfectly understands that any word, publicly pronounced by her can harm Nicholas (although it is much worse), and her can be brought to jail.

By the way, they got married in a colony - in 2011, when Statkevich was serving his previous term. Then he, a presidential candidate in the 2010 election, sentenced to six years in prison under Article 293 of the Criminal Code of Belarus “Organization of Massion Riots” (now he sits under the same article: the sanction provides for 5 to 15 years in prison). Nikolai served his then time in the Shklovskaya colony No. 17.

They have been married for 12 years, but together they lived less than five. For more than seven years, Marina Adamovich has been waiting for her husband from prison, collects programs that they do not accept, and goes to receptions to the prison authorities in the hope that at least one of this authorities may suddenly be a person. But - it does not turn out. And on his Facebook, experienced Marina posts only her pets (they have five cats and a dog and Nicholas) and impartially reports how many days there is no news about her husband. On January 23, the page of Marina Adamovich was deleted. Whether she managed to do this herself, while the security forces were breaking the doorbell, or they did it, having gained access, is unknown. On the night of January 24, it was only known that Marina was taken to the Zavodskoye Medical District of Minsk.

With all the desire, they could not complain to her Facebook. Relatives of political prisoners are well aware of how they are “sewn” about participation in extremist formation. The scheme is very simple. All independent media of Belarus are recognized as extremist formations. And any comment on such “formation”, any answer to the most innocent question of the journalist (“Tell me when you last received a letter from your husband”) is a deadline. This is an article by the Criminal Code, and here there is a complete variety: it can be 361-4 (“promotion of extremist activity”), and maybe 361-1 (“creation of extremist formation or participation in it”).

This was how Daria Losik, the wife of Blogger Igor Losik, the “accomplice” of Statkevich, ended up in the female colony of Gomel.

Igor was sentenced to 15 years in prison (all for the same mass riots, although his, Nikolai Statkevich, and Sergey Tikhanovsky was detained before protests began in Belarus). In May 2022, his wife Daria gave an interview to Belsat. She did not brand the bloody regime, did not call the security forces criminals - she simply talked about her husband, about love and about Paulin's daughter. And in October of the same year, Daria was detained. It turns out that the interview was "assistance to extremist activity." Daria was sentenced to two years in prison. The prosecutor said that Daria "positioned herself as a wife of a political prisoner." This is also a corpus delicti. And now, in the early morning of January 24, no one knows when Marina Adamovich will return home.

Another detainee is 76-year-old Boris Hamaida from Vitebsk. Perhaps, everything is known in Belarus, and even in Vitebsk - just everything. Back in 1990, he created in Vitebsk a club of voters “for free elections”, and then on eighties eighth at the “Shabashka” in Siberia, money began to publish the newspaper “Choice”. When the newspaper was closed, he published underground. And two decades every day in any weather, he went to the center of Vitebsk to distribute independent newspapers. There are no more newspapers in Belarus, and Boris is already 76 years old. This is a person about whom even the propaganda “SB-Belarus Today”, the official body of the Lukashenko administration, wrote with respect a few years ago. On January 23, the KGB came for Boris Hamaida.

At six in the morning in Gomel they took from the house of the former political prisoner Alexei Romanov. Alexei had already left for a year in the colony on charges of public insult Lukashenko and remained to live in Belarus. He has an oncological disease. He fell into the colony with a disabled person of the second group, but after liberation the disability was removed (the Belarusian correctional colony is the most all -Union health resort in the world).

Simultaneously with the detentions, the security forces distributed information about the recognition of extremist sites, telegram channels, chats, films, pages in social networks. For example, the Lenin Court of Mogilev recognized Ilya Varlamov as extremist “Belarus: Tyrania Lukashenko, Chernobyl and an alliance with Russia/KGB and collective farm country,” which was shot in 2021 and gained three and a half million views on YouTube.

And in extremists there was an IneDhelpby initiative - a project of social solidarity, which helps the families of political prisoners and people who found themselves after repression in a difficult financial situation. Those who want to help through Ineedhelpby can pay for the delivery of a set of products for two weeks to a person or family. Only food, nothing more - not a secret “Live Belarus!”, Neither a flag nor a secret sign. But now buckwheat, rice and sunflower oil are also extremists. Well, okay, now we, Belarusians, at least we will be in a good company, we will definitely not die of hunger.

Those who have never lived in Belarus, but only read about her in the news, could not but arise the question: why right now? After all, there was no special shocks in the sluggish thirty -seventh Belarusian year and is not expected.

Of course, you can bring the theoretical base to any event: Lukashenko’s meeting with Putin, Lukashenko’s trip to Africa, the sale of the plant or a meeting with the security forces. For any other than repression. Because the question "Why right now?" It sounds the same as "what's me for?" To any “why” the Belarusian security official will always answer directly: on Kochan.