The political prisoner Vatslau Areshka has gone almost completely blind

The political prisoner Vatslau Areshka has gone almost completely blind yet he is unable to gain disability status in prison

Vatslau Areshka, the Radio and Electronics Workers’ Union (REP) activist, remains the only one of the group of unionists arrested in April 2022 who is still behind bars.

The REP leaders Vasily Beresneu and Gennady Fedynich, together with the BKDP President Aliaksandr Yarashuk, have been released. Vatslau Areshka is still held in the Penitentiary No. 22 close to the town of Ivatsevichy.

Vatslau Areshka

While doing his time, the political prisoner Vatslau Areshka has become virtually blind.

A source familiar with Vatslau Areshka’s affairs who wished to remain anonymous has told “Svaboda” about it:

“He can no longer read by himself. Still, calls and letters from him do come. Although the letters are written using a stencil or else other inmates rewrite them for him. He is eager for news as he knows little about what is going on in the world. Sometimes he listens to the radio, sometimes the news are read to him by others. He doesn’t watch TV. Because of his impaired vision and also because he tries to stay in a positive mood”, says the source.

According to the source, Vatslau Areshka’s health deteriorates and not only because of his age and ailments.

“His vision progressively deteriorates yet he’s getting no medical care for his eyes nor any other problems of a man his age because healthcare in the penitentiary is way below par.”

At the press-conference in Vilnius on September 12, 2025, another political prisoner, Aliaksandr Mantsevich, also spoke on Areshka’s condition. According to Mantsevich who had served his time at the same penitentiary in Ivatsevichy, Vatslau (Viacheslau) Areshka today can hardly see at all, although, in the early years of his imprisonment, he did read books.

“Other prisoners help him. When they help him walk to the mess-room, leading him by the hand, Vatslau asks them if the sun is shining. During the night, when he has to go to the loo, he sometimes stumbles and falls, hurting himself badly, sometimes breaking skin, because his eyes fail him”, says Aliaksandr Mantsevich about Areshka.

In January this year, Vatslau Areshka turned 70. According to the “Vyasna” human rights defenders, Vatslau Areshka has tried to formalize his disability status in the penitentiary but so far without success.

Vatslau Areshka, a political scientist and public figure, an activist of the REP union, was convicted in early 2023 under five Articles of the Criminal Code, including the “creation of an extremist organization and participation therein”, and sentenced to 8 years behind bars.

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