Political prisoner freed from Belarus: No one should experience such conditions
Allan Roio, an Estonian citizen who was freed from a Belarusian prison on Saturday with the help of U.S. diplomatic efforts, said upon arriving in Estonia that no one should be held in conditions like those in Belarusian prisons in the 21st century.
In September 2020, Allan Roio founded a nonprofit organization in Estonia called the Fund of Belarusian Friends, aimed at collecting donations to support people who had fled the Belarusian regime.
However, the Estonian nonprofit Roio established never became operational, and a few months later, it was removed from the business register.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday evening after arriving in Tallinn, Roio said he created the charity fund to support large families who disagreed with the results of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election or had voted for someone else.
"The local dictator ordered that these people be left without jobs, without food. Why it affected me personally — being a father of a large family myself, I felt it was my duty. My wife is Belarusian, and I am tied to that country for life, since my three children are as Belarusian as they are Estonian," Roio said.
According to Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna (Eesti 200), Estonia had done everything it could over the past year and a half to secure Roio's release and return home. Tsahkna expressed his gratitude to the United States for its support.
"At the same time, I must point out that only 14 political prisoners were released," the minister said, adding that thousands more remain behind bars and the horrors in Belarus continue.
Roio noted that the fund was registered in both Estonia and the United Kingdom, and that the latter had become active. "The British fund got going more quickly, and we were able to help quite a few people through it," he said.
Roio had already been under surveillance by Belarusian authorities before his arrest. "Being behind bars is one thing, but since 2021, I was essentially a hostage in Belarus. In 2021, the KGB summoned me for the first time and wagged a finger," he said.
"I was treated very poorly. The conditions... I'll probably make it a personal mission to inform human rights organizations about them — whether someone is a criminal, a political prisoner, whoever they are, no one should be kept in such conditions in the 21st century," Roio said.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski, Barbara Oja
