Good day! We are the Kotov family: me, Denis Kotov, the head of the family, my wife Svetlana and our two wonderful sons — 14-year-old Ilya and 6-year-old Milan.
Until recently, we lived in Mogilev, quietly conducted our everyday life, worked and brought up our children. In 2020, being dissatisfied with the election results and working at the Belarusian Railroad, I left the trade union of the enterprise and participated in several peaceful rallies in Minsk. In this way I expressed my civil position on the topic of what was happening in the country. At that time I thought that it was normal to talk about problems peacefully and to look for ways to solve them.
Trouble came to our family suddenly. At the beginning of this year, on January 8, KGB officers detained me and several of my colleagues at the workplace. For two days my wife did not know where I was. There was a feeling that law enforcement officers deliberately hid this information from her. I was tried under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses — distribution of information products containing calls to extremist activity) and given 15 days of administrative arrest.
People convicted under political articles are kept in the TDF in terrible, inhuman conditions. A “penitential” video was filmed with me, which was later broadcasted on the Belarus 4 channel.
A week after serving my sentence, I was fired from my job, having 21 years of experience in the railroad.
But even this was not enough for them. On March 5th , my wife and I, along with several other colleagues, were detained by the officers of the State Department for Combating Organized Crime and initiated a criminal case under part 1 of article 342 (article 342 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus — organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order). Thus, we were put in the pre-trial detention center for 3 and a half months, leaving our children in the care of our sick grandmother. On June 13 we were sentenced and I was given 2.5 years of “chemistry with direction” and my wife 2 years of home “chemistry ”*.
It was very difficult to make the decision to leave home. With the help of BYSOL, we were able to leave for another country. And now we have to build a life from scratch.
It's a shame to realize that we have become unwanted by our country. I hope that in our new place we will find calm, stability and confidence in the future.
We ask for help for the first time to get stronger, to get on our feet, to socialize, to settle our children and to start working ourselves.
There are 2 types of “chemistry”: home chemistry and regular chemistry.
“Home chemistry” is a type of punishment when the convict remains at liberty, but with restrictions. The convict has a schedule for both work and personal activities, including going to the store or throwing out the trash. The policemen can come every day and at any time with a checkup.
“Routine chemistry” is a type of punishment where the convict is sent to an open correctional facility. People live in housing units similar to dormitories. They are under constant supervision and are obliged to fulfill the rules of internal order, while paying for accommodation, buying food at their own expense, cooking, washing and cleaning themselves. At the same time, all convicts are obliged to work.
Note BYSOL.
Fee amount:
€4450
€2500 — rent for a family with utilities for 3 months + pre-payment
€1600 — other expenses for the next 3 months while looking for a job
€350 — to get two children ready for school, one of them is a first grader