Another Release: Political Prisoner Paviel Syramalotau Freeside + Interview

Young opposition activist Paviel Syramalotau, 21, who was widely viewed as a political prisoner, was released from prison on September 27, three months after applying for a presidential pardon.

Syramalotau's sister said that he was no longer in Correctional Institution No. 19 in Mahiliou but refused to provide any other information. She asked the media not to ask Paviel for interviews for the time being to let the family spend some time with him, BelaPAN says.

RFE/RL interviewed Paviel after his return home.

Please, tell about your release.

On September 25, I and Siarhiej Kavalienka were called to appear before prison administration. He told we would go home that day — pack your possessions. We were searched and told the official papers would arrive soon. We kept on waiting but there were no papers.

Siarhiej Kavalienka was released a bit earlier. I left the jail on the afternoon of September 27. They took me to the railway station, waited until the train arrived, bought me a ticket and... here I am, at my home.

Did you appealed for a pardon? When?

My lawyer did this precisely 3 months ago, on June 25. The documents arrived as soon as June 30.

I believe they were desperately waiting for the appeal. But released me after 3 more months.

How were you treated? What are your impressions?

It’s hard to say something definite... When there was a slightest opportunity, I was made a “violator” [of prison rules]. When I filled in complaints, they were not considered until the last moment or simply “got lost...” I was “malicious violator.”

They had pinned five prison terms violations on me before I applied for a pardon.

Were you forced to ask for a pardon?

I was suggested to. But I had decided to do it myself earlier.

Did you receive letters from your friends or other prisoners?

I can’t receive letters from prisoners — they simply won’t be delivered. But yes, sometimes there were problems of not receiving the letters.

Did you learn about something in outer world? Did you know that society, human rights advocates fight for you?

I knew bits, but not the whole picture. I received newspapers not regularly. When I phoned my relatives, they told me about what was going on.

Do you feel sorry for such a tough university of life?

No, I do not. I am even a bit delighted I lived through it.

What was the hardest behind the bars?

Parting with your beloved ones, probably.

In May 2011, Paviel Syramalotau and his co-defendants Jauhen Vaskovich and Arciom Prakapienka were sentenced to seven-year prison terms over an October 2010 Molotov cocktail attack on the KGB office in Babruysk.

The parents of the three young men insist that their sons never intended to burn the KGB building in Babrujsk but merely tried to express their outrage at the situation in Belarus, and that they were intimidated and given excessively harsh sentences.

In the firebomb attack, which occurred on October 16, 2010, unknown people threw two glass bottles containing a flammable substance at the KGB office in Babruysk. No one was hurt in the incident. A statement posted the following day on http://www.belarus.indymedia.org said that the attack was carried out “in solidarity with Minsk anarchists” and was “intended to show how to fight against the system.”

On September 26, prominent opposition activist Siarhiej Kavalienka was released from the same Mahiliou prison. According to the 37-year-old Kavalienka, he applied for a presidential pardon at the end of June under pressure from the prison administration.

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