“We are waiting for this nightmare to end.” Human rights activist Sudalenka spends his birthday behind bars

The tri­al of Leanid Sudalen­ka and his assis­tants, vol­un­teers Tat­siana Lasit­sa and Maryia Tarasen­ka, start­ed on 3 Sep­tem­ber as a closed court hear­ing. Judge Siarhei Salous­ki explained that the tri­al is held in cam­era “for the safe­ty of wit­ness­es” and to avoid the dis­clo­sure of bank secrets.

Leanid Sudalen­ka has been kept in Homel pre­tri­al deten­tion cen­ter since 18 Jan­u­ary. Dur­ing this time he met with his wife and chil­dren only once, in August. There are four sons in Sudalenka’s fam­i­ly: the youngest is 11 years old.

“The day before, we sent Leanid a pack­age to the prison. Every­thing he likes, includ­ing things that are not good for him, but I found the food that is low on sug­ar – hal­va, marsh­mal­lows, can­dies, cook­ies. His cell­mates need to be treat­ed, he’s not alone. I tried to get vis­it per­mis­sion on that day, his 55^th birth­day. But the judge nev­er replied. Although I still hope for it. If it hap­pens, I will be very sur­prised and believe in human­i­ty. Appar­ent­ly, he will cel­e­brate his birth­day in court, sur­round­ed by the judge, pros­e­cu­tor and lawyer – no one is allowed in,” said Aksana, Sudalenka’s wife.

The court hear­ings are sched­uled till 24 Sep­tem­ber. But Leanid Sudalen­ka wrote that the case is unlike­ly to be heard with­in this peri­od. It will con­tin­ue in Octo­ber, as the court has so far reviewed about 1/3 of the case – which is 79 vol­umes.

“The junior kid, Miki­ta, miss­es his father. He was our mas­ter, in charge of men’s affairs in the house. Miki­ta con­sult­ed with him, shared every­thing. Now he writes let­ters to his dad, where he describes his adven­tures, what he does at school, tells about friends and girls, asks for advice. Dad writes him back, but it’s not like when they were at home sit­ting at the table,” shares Aksana.

Aksana says that the rel­a­tives stood by her when Leanid Sudalen­ka was detained.

“We are always togeth­er, next to each oth­er, all sis­ters, broth­ers. Every­one writes let­ters, offers help. We like to go to our par­ents’ and get togeth­er as much as pos­si­ble – we all have a big friend­ly fam­i­ly. We stand for each oth­er, we’re all one. And if that kind of trou­ble hap­pens to us, we’re all togeth­er. We’re wait­ing for this night­mare to end and for us all to come togeth­er again,” says the human rights activist’s wife.

She wor­ries about her husband’s health. He has nev­er com­plained about his health, but his wife is aware of his prob­lems with blood pres­sure, sug­ar lev­els, and eye­sight.

“He is on bed rest in the deten­tion cen­ter because of his health. But I know he comes back from court hear­ings and just falls on his bed – because he’s very tired in court. While still at home, he worked real­ly hard: he was a worka­holic, devot­ed him­self to work, espe­cial­ly to help­ing peo­ple – with advice, mon­ey, he nev­er refused any­one,” explains Aksana.