{"id":584331,"date":"2026-10-02T14:57:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T11:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=584331"},"modified":"2026-10-02T15:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:04:26","slug":"nearly-all-former-political-prisoners-surveyed-report-psychological-abuse-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/nearly-all-former-political-prisoners-surveyed-report-psychological-abuse-study","title":{"rendered":"Nearly All Former Political Prisoners Surveyed Report Psychological Abuse \u2014 Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Psychological torture or ill-treatment was experienced by 98.6% of former Belarusian political prisoners who participated in a study after emigrating following their release. Physical torture or ill-treatment was reported by 88.3%. The <a href=\"https:\/\/tidsskrift.dk\/torture-journal\/article\/view\/168176\/212209\">study was published<\/a> in the scientific journal Torture.<\/p>\n<p>Psychiatrist <strong>Uladzimir Pikirenia<\/strong>, Dissidentby founder <strong>Maryna Kasinerava<\/strong>, psychologist <strong>Yulia Lahvinenka<\/strong> and University of Zurich professor <strong>Andreas Maercker<\/strong> surveyed 77 former political prisoners and conducted six additional interviews. The data were collected between February and May 2025. The median duration of imprisonment among participants was 30 months.<\/p>\n<p>Violence during arrest was reported by 85.7% of respondents. While in detention, participants described forced nudity, stress positions, beatings, electric shocks and dangerous forced labor.<\/p>\n<p>Among forms of psychological abuse, the most frequently reported were constant lighting in cells \u2014 79.7%, extreme detention conditions \u2014 66.2%, denial of medical care \u2014 64.9%, and sleep deprivation \u2014 59.5%. More than half of those who experienced psychological abuse reported ten or more different forms of it.<\/p>\n<p>Participants identified loneliness and separation from loved ones as the most severe sources of stress. Suicidal thoughts while in detention were reported by 30.1% of respondents, while four people reported suicide attempts.<\/p>\n<p>Humiliation was identified as a purpose of the abuse by 81.9% of respondents, while 80.6% cited subjugation or suppression of the individual. According to the authors&#8217; interpretation, the violence was used not only to obtain testimony but also to discipline prisoners and undermine their personal autonomy.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers recommend that rehabilitation take into account both prison-related trauma and subsequent fears for relatives and the difficulties of emigration. However, the sample was small and non-random, meaning the findings cannot automatically be generalized to all Belarusian political prisoners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psychological torture or ill-treatment was experienced by 98.6% of former Belarusian political prisoners who participated in a study after emigrating following their release. Physical torture or ill-treatment was reported by 88.3%. The study was published in the scientific journal Torture. Psychiatrist Uladzimir Pikirenia, Dissidentby founder Maryna Kasinerava, psychologist Yulia Lahvinenka and University of Zurich professor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6abf9dcf5699c.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Nearly All Former Political Prisoners Surveyed Report Psychological Abuse \u2014 Study"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143127],"tags":[143178],"class_list":["post-584331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-society","tag-politzakljuchennye"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584333,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584331\/revisions\/584333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}