A former political prisoner needs help covering the cost of expensive contact lenses and glasses after losing half of his eyesight while in detention.
Dmitry Polyakov was born in Vitebsk, but in the early 2000s he moved to Germany with his family and lived there for many years, while maintaining ties with Belarus. He still had an apartment in Vitebsk, which he regularly visited to deal with everyday matters and undergo medical check-ups, including those related to his eyesight.
“I can’t say I was apolitical, because what was happening in Belarus always worried me deeply, and in August 2020 I happened to come to my hometown of Vitebsk,” Dmitry notes. “I saw how the riot police were running amok, how people were being grabbed and indiscriminately thrown into police wagons. After that, I had no illusions left about the actions of the so-called authorities.”
After 2020, Dmitry began taking part in solidarity actions abroad, writing comments on social media and participating in protest chats.
“Apparently, that’s when the law enforcers put me on their radar,” the former political prisoner suggests. “I didn’t hide behind a pseudonym, I openly wrote about what I considered unjust, got into arguments with supporters of the authorities. Apparently, someone reported me.”
On 4 October 2023, Dmitry once again travelled to Belarus. At the border, he was taken off the bus and subjected to an additional check, but then released. On 12 October, KGB officers came to his home. As the security officials later stated, “the arrest involved the use of force.”
“They threw me to the floor, started beating me with their feet and fists, tightened the handcuffs so much that my hands went numb, and put a bag over my head,” Dmitry recalls. “They beat me on the head with a book, with their fists, constantly pressing on me.” He was taken to the KGB building, where he was tortured for six hours, demanded to give the password to his phone, beaten on the head, liver, and ribs. Eventually, the law enforcers found a subscription to the Telegram channel “Kalinouski Regiment.”
After the interrogation, Dmitry was taken to the October District Police Department of Vitebsk, and then to a temporary detention centre, where he spent 20 days under administrative arrest. At the same time, a criminal case was opened under Article 369 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (“insulting a public official or their relatives”) for a comment under a video featuring Olga Chemodanova. In January 2024, the court sentenced Dmitry to one and a half years of imprisonment in a correctional facility and imposed a fine of 5,500 Belarusian rubles.
After the trial, he was transferred to the Vitebsk remand centre, where he spent five days in a solitary punishment cell in cold conditions. On 24 April 2024, Dmitry was sent to Correctional Facility No. 22 in Ivatsevichy, where he spent nine months. There, he worked in the industrial zone dismantling metal and as a loader.
On 6 February 2025, Dmitry was released from prison and was able to leave for Germany. Only after his release did it become clear that his health had seriously deteriorated during imprisonment, above all his eyesight. Doctors diagnosed keratoconus in both eyes: he can hardly see with his left eye, and with his right eye his vision is about 50 percent.
“Without correction, I simply can’t properly orient myself in space. I’ve been prescribed further examinations, and an operation will likely be required,” Dmitry says.
To preserve his eyesight and be able to lead a full life, he needs rigid contact lenses with individual fitting and special glasses. The cost of the lenses together with the specialist’s work is about €1,500, and the glasses cost another €200. Medical insurance covers the operation, but does not provide for the manufacture of lenses and glasses, and the former political prisoner has no personal funds.
“I really want to restore my eyesight so I can live normally again,” Dmitry says. “I’m not able to find the money for the necessary lenses and glasses on my own, and without them I can hardly see anything. Until the operation, I need to somehow live and work, so I’m hoping for support and solidarity.”
Fundraising goal
€1700
€1500 — manufacture and fitting of contact lenses
€200 — manufacture of glasses