{"id":586839,"date":"2026-10-08T15:21:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=586839"},"modified":"2026-10-08T15:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:29:09","slug":"political-prisoner-viachaslau-areshka-has-completely-lost-his-sight-in-prison-radio-svaboda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/political-prisoner-viachaslau-areshka-has-completely-lost-his-sight-in-prison-radio-svaboda","title":{"rendered":"Political Prisoner Viachaslau Areshka Has Completely Lost His Sight In Prison \u2014 Radio Svaboda"},"content":{"rendered":"
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71-year-old political prisoner and activist of the independent REP trade union Viachaslau Areshka<\/strong>\u00a0has completely lost his sight in Penal Colony No. 22 in Ivatsevichy. Radio Svaboda reports<\/a>, citing a relative who has been informed about the man\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used to be able to see light and shadow, but now even that is gone. And he does not say anything about how he is coping with it, avoiding this difficult subject. Three days ago, he sent a letter and congratulated his grandchildren on their birthdays. He even wrote a few words in his own hand, though they turned out to be illegible; almost nothing could be read, but it is good that he is trying,\u201d<\/i> she said.<\/p>\n

According to her, Areshka also suffers from high blood pressure and problems with his back and legs, and his condition continues to deteriorate. The prison administration offered to send Viachaslau to a hospital under escort, but he refused. She explained that he was concerned he might not withstand the transfer.<\/p>\n

In September,Areshka\u2019s condition was described by journalist and former political prisoner Dzmitry Semchanka<\/b>, who served his sentence at the same prison. According to him, Viachaslau suffered a retinal detachment, after which his eyesight continued to deteriorate. Semchanka said that Areshka had to be accompanied even to the kitchen and the telephone, and that in the dark he could no longer get to the toilet on his own.<\/p>\n

Viachaslau Areshka was detained in April 2022. He was charged under three articles of the Criminal Code, including the article on creating or participating in an extremist organization. In 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in prison. He has been held at Penal Colony No. 22 in Ivatsevichy for the third year.<\/p>\n

Human rights defenders included Areshka\u00a0on a list of 170 political prisoners considered particularly vulnerable due to their health conditions and are calling for his prompt release.<\/p>\n

According to sources cited by Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty, Areshka\u00a0was included for a year in lists of prisoners whose release was being sought with the involvement of the U.S. side. However, he remains imprisoned, unlike other independent trade union activists who were tried in the same case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

71-year-old political prisoner and activist of the independent REP trade union Viachaslau Areshka\u00a0has completely lost his sight in Penal Colony No. 22 in Ivatsevichy. Radio Svaboda reports, citing a relative who has been informed about the man\u2019s condition. \u201cHe used to be able to see light and shadow, but now even that is gone. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":567416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6ac78c9a0d53c.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Political Prisoner Viachaslau Areshka Has Completely Lost His Sight In Prison \u2014 Radio Svaboda"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143090],"tags":[143174,143178],"class_list":["post-586839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-politics","tag-belarusskie-politzakljuchennye","tag-politzakljuchennye"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586839","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\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":586841,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586839\/revisions\/586841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}