Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “I’ve just learned the tragic news — Tamara Karavai has passed away, a former political prisoner who spent nearly two years behind bars. Tamara was sent to prison for nothing more than a ‘like’ on the internet. She was sentenced to serve time – and then, three months before her term was up, she was supposedly ‘pardoned’, a move meant to showcase the ‘compassion’ of the Lukashenka regime.
This was not an act of mercy – it was a cynical attempt to cover up a crime. Releasing someone when their body has already been broken is not a pardon – it is the concealment of evidence of a killing.
The Lukashenka regime shows no mercy – not to women, not to the ill, not to the elderly. It throws people in prison for likes, for words, for thoughts – and then quietly destroys their health and human dignity. What happened to Tamara is not an isolated case. We remember the stories of Sviatlana Krutsikava, Hanna Kandratsenka, Valiantsin Ivanouski. And tragically, this list is unlikely to end here…
I want to express my deepest condolences to Tamara’s loved ones – her son, her partner. This is a terrible tragedy that should never have happened. We will continue to fight for all political prisoners. We demand not quiet releases on the brink of death – but justice. Not silence and lies – but accountability for those responsible for torture and death”.
