On 25 August, Siarhei Piatrukhin, a former political prisoner from Belarus, published a video on his YouTube channel. In the video, he spoke about political prisoners held in Correctional Facility No. 3 who cooperate with the prison administration. They often report on other prisoners and receive preferential treatment, such as extra visits, care packages and other privileges.
To our surprise, Vital Shyshlou, an anti-fascist football hooligan, was also mentioned among these prisoners. We have been supporting Vital, as well as the other defendants in the “case of the antifascists”, since 2020. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison for taking part in protests and assaulting police officers.
Siarhei Piatrukhin, citing six sources among former prisoners of the facility, says that Shyshlou was part of a team of administrative henchmen who supervised other prisoners in the industrial unit. Based on their reports, many political prisoners were sent to segregation and solitary confinement because they did not fulfill the plan or were not diligent. Some of the henchmen also acted as prosecution witnesses in other cases, for which they received favours from the administration.
ABC Belarus condemns such behaviour. We do not consider those who stop at nothing to be our comrades. We understand that many prisoners become part of the henchman caste as a result of threats or psychological games played by the operative officers, but this does not take away the responsibility of the individuals who decide to become informers for their own benefit.
Collaborating with the police in any way to harm other oppressed people is unacceptable to us, so we are announcing the suspension of all support for Vital Shyshlou. We are open to consider evidence that refutes Piatrukhin’s claims, but until we receive it we will rely on the facts presented in the video above.