Olga Voitekhovich’s cell in a Minsk pre-trial detention centre is ten square metres – and she shares it with 15 other prisoners. She knows its dimensions because she measured it with some thread and a couple of matchboxes. She’s awaiting trial, accused of setting fire to a Belarusian MP’s house in 2021.
“The walls are dilapidated and they constantly crumble, and there’s a fungus on the walls,” explained her friend, another political prisoner, Olga Ritus.
Voitekhovich is set to become one of more than 500 Belarusian women to have been convicted in politically motivated prosecutions since the country’s stolen 2020 elections, in which president Alexander Lukashenka held onto power in a vote marred by fraud and the violent suppression of protests. During those protests, women held a series of peaceful marches and supported protesters.
