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Thirty-six women with no food, water, or air in a four-person cell in the prison on Okrestina street in Minsk, Belarus

Hanna L.

Zhanna L.

Katya K.

Tanya P.

Lena A.

Nastya B.

Olesya S.

Olga Pavlova

Polina Z.

Yulia Filippova

Yulya G.

Soundtrack

Foreword

The brutal censorship, silencing, imprisonment and suppression of dissenting voices in Belarus has captured the world’s attention, but the depth and meaning of such suppression and brutality is hard for the mind to grapple with in abstract or statistical terms. This wonderful Cell#18 Project allows us to see the scale and scope of what has been happening in Belarus through the real experiences of 12 remarkable women, whose stories offer windows into the wider spectacle of the crisis. The strength, commitment, courage and honour of these heroic Belarusians is an inspiration for us all, and I hope it will help the world focus on the tyranny and disgrace of the Lukashenko regime. Stephen Fry,
writer, actor, public figure

Soundtrack

ARREST
Will you be stomped on during arrest? No, it’s enough to simply stump you. You are sitting on a school porch, on a chair, with a folder in your hands – this is the maximum of rights that poll observers receive in Belarus during elections... Click to read
What does an inquiry, investigation or identification of truth look like? There is no inquiry and investigation. Now and then different people in police uniform or civilian clothes enter the prison cell and ask the same questions over and over... Click to read

INTERROGATION

COURT
If Yulia G. were not told that she was going to court, she would not have realized that she was tried and sentenced. "Come out, face the wall!" While convoy is busy with keys, Yulia looks out of the corner of her eye... Click to read
The long concrete prison hallway is punctured with iron-clad doors that lead into cells. The door has a square window, its sash folds down and turns into a shelf. This is the so-called feeder... Click to read

EVERYDAY PRISON LIFE

TORTURE
What should we call these violent acts committed by the riot police, policemen, interrogators, and prison guards? Excessive use of authority? Oh no, torture... Click to read
The phrase "Because of you, bitches, honest cops are dying on the streets” Tanya P. and Hanna L. heard several times. First in the van, then in prison. It was not clear what honest cops they referred to... Click to read

SERVANTS OF THE REGIME

SISTERS IN CAPTIVITY
Nastya B says that on the fourth day in prison, right after they were transferred from Okrestina street to Zhodino, female inmates of cell #18 experienced menstrual synchrony... Click to read
The light in the cell is always on, it is hard to understand what time it is. The usual prison schedule - wake up, breakfast, roll call, lunch, walk, dinner, bedtime - there isn’t any of it, the guards are too busy. The sense of time is completely gone... Click to read

PEOPLE OUTSIDE

LIBERATION
Before the release all female prisoners of cell #18 were forced to sign a statement that they would never take part in protests and would not disclose the details of their prison stay... Click to read
After her release, Nastya B, her husband, and father-in-law do not return to her Minsk apartment, but go straight to Soligorsk, the city ​​of her childhood, to her mother’s. She stands in the shower for several hours and tries to wash off the prison dirt... Click to read

LIFE AFTERWARDS

UNDER SUPERVISION
One way or another all people who experienced August arrests are put under surveillance. Special Service agents posing as university professors talk to Lena A... Click to read
You’ll say, ‘come on, it was only five days.’ Five days of, sure, absolutely illegal arrest and completely unsanitary prison confinement, but only five days. Is it necessary to take it all so seriously in a country where some elderly people still remember how millions were sent to exile and sentenced to decades of hard labor camps? Did arrests look like this three -quarters of a century ago? Did tortures? Click to read

EPILOGUE

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