An award-winning Belarusian journalist, writer and poet, Kaciaryna Andrejeva (real surname Bachvałava) is serving an eight-year prison sentence on trumped-up charges of ‘state treason’. Andrejeva, who is thirty-one, is currently being held in a medium-security penal colony at Homel in southeastern Belarus.

On 15 November 2020, Andrejeva was arrested in Minsk together with Daria Culcova, a colleague from the independent broadcaster Belsat TV. They were livestreaming a peaceful protest in the Square of Changes, honouring the memory of the artist Raman Bandarenka, who was reportedly killed by Belarusian security officers following the fraudulent presidential election of August 2020. Thousands of people throughout the country took to the streets to commemorate Bandarenka’s life. Many people were arrested. The journalists witnessed the violent dispersal of the peaceful protesters, the demolition of a memorial set up in Bandarenka’s memory and the brutal arrest of many demonstrators, before themselves being detained. They were subsequently charged with ‘organising and preparing actions that grossly violate public order’ and placed in pretrial detention. On 18 February 2021, a court in Minsk found Andrejeva and Culcova guilty and sentenced each of them to two years in prison. Their sentence was upheld on appeal on 23 April 2021.

Andrejeva’s book Belarusian Donbas, coauthored with her husband, the journalist Ihar Iljaš, and published in 2020, details their investigation into the role of Belarusian citizens and organisations in the war in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. The book was deemed ‘extremist’ by the Belarusian authorities and banned a year after it was published.

Andrejeva was scheduled to be released on 5 September 2022. However, on 13 July 2022, a court in Homel sentenced her to an additional eight years in prison on bogus charges of ‘state treason’. The trial was held behind closed doors. The verdict was upheld on appeal on 20 September 2022.

Since being detained, Andrejeva has started to write poetry. The following poem (translated from Belarusian by Hanna Komar and John Farndon) was composed behind bars in 2021.

And whenever I stray
On paths faraway
Where beasts left
Tracks in the snow
I am scared no longer,
Amused no longer –
No more trouble
No more woe.
The songs around
Have lost their sound
And instead of songs:
The crunch of spines.
In my beloved country
Before spring comes finally,
Through my prison bars
You still shine. 

According to PEN Belarus, state repression in the country has considerably worsened in the past four years. At the time of writing, around 1,300 people are being held on politically motivated grounds in the country. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has concluded that some of the violations it has documented in Belarus may amount to crimes against humanity. In July, I documented in these pages the case of Maksim Znak, a 43-year-old Belarusian lawyer and writer serving a ten-year sentence in a penal colony after being convicted on trumped-up charges.

Readers might like to send appeals expressing concern at the detention of Kaciaryna Andrejeva, in violation of her right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and urging the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release her, along with all other writers and journalists held in Belarus solely for expressing their views.Appeals to be addressed to:

Dmitry Krutoi
Head of the Administration of the President of Belarus
Independence Palace
Praspiekt Pieramožcau˘ 12
Minsk, Belarus

Maxim Ryzhenkov
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus
Email: mail@mfa.gov.by
Embassy of the Republic of Belarus
6 Kensington Court
London W8 5DL
Email: uk.london@mfa.gov.by

You can ask the British ambassador in Minsk to continue to exert pressure on the Belarusian authorities to release those imprisoned on political grounds, including Andrejeva and Znak, and to redouble her efforts to address gross human rights violations in Belarus by writing to:

Her Excellency Jacqueline Perkins
British Embassy
37 Karl Marx Street
Minsk 220030
Belarus
Email: britishembassy.minsk@fcdo.gov.uk

You can also send seasonal greeting cards to Kaciaryna Andrejeva in prison, expressing solidarity with her.

Kaciaryna Andrejeva
PC No 4
Vulica Antoškina 3
Homel 246035
Belarus