20 July 2021
The trial of Stepan Latypov continues. Due to the state of his health, the next session of the so-called court has been postponed to 2nd August. Stepan Latypov faces up to 10 years in prison; he pleaded not guilty of any of the charges brought against him.
Stepan Latypov is a Belarusian who had to endure a lot of hardship. He is an arborist and industrial climber by profession.
Stepan Latypov spoke out against falsification of the presidential election results and violence by the security forces. He gave flowers to women who came out in August to protest against the violence and who stood in the chain of solidarity near Komarovka market place.
He has been detained since September 15, 2020, when, together with his neighbors, he went out to defend the mural with the “DJs of change” and simply asked about the purpose of the security forces who came to the square and asked them to introduce themselves. During the arrest, he did not resist.
On June 1, during the "trial" in Minsk, Stepan Latypov tried to commit suicide: he stuck a pen into his throat.
“The GUBOP promised, if I do not plead guilty, there will be a „sweatbox“ again and criminal cases will be opended against relatives and neighbors,” the political prisoner said to his father before his act.
A few hours before the suicide attempt, he wrote a letter that began with a drawing of a hedgehog with a kite and a joke that it was a hedgehog, and not a pregnant pit bull with needles on its back.
Further in his letter he wrote about his „absolutely beaten“ sick head. Who has beaten off his head and why - he did not say. It is known that in prison Stepan had to endure terrible bullying and torture. He was beaten, spent 51 days in the so-called “sweatbox“, was kept in cells together with people with mental disabilities.
Like many other people convicted on political charges, his friends and relatives describe him as a person with a strong sense of justice.
Now it is becoming obvious to many that we are no longer talking about politics, but about the struggle between Good and Evil.
A Russian politician, president of the Union of the Right Forces Dr. Leonid Gozman described this situation as follows:
„Shame and tragedy.
Zakharova is a diplomat, Putin is a president, Lukashenko is his brother. What a shame for our country and for all of us!
What´s going on in Belarus is an ancient tragedy, the battle between Good and Evil. God bless these wonderful and heroic people with luck.
And we are ashamed. We are again on the side of Evil, again and again”.
Describing Belarus in August last year, the economist Yaroslav Romanchuk has singled out “two sides. Good and Evil. Cleanliness and Dirt. Nobility and Meanness. Kindness and Sadism. Love and Hate".
"Evil has manifested itself in full. Totally uniformed. Armed to the teeth. Face in balaclava. Batons, brass knuckles and weapons. Tear gas and rubber bullets. Eyes full of hate. For them, people are meat. The code of honor is a rule of horror: hit harder, humiliate more, break bolder. They are a stinking aggressive pile. ”
He contrasts this to ordinary Belarusians. “People with most beautiful hearts and souls. With unique solidarity and courage ”.
The whole world remembers the famous phrase of Immanuel Kant: „Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me“.
Thanks to this innate moral law inside each of us, we are confident that victory will soon be ours, of ordinary Belarusians!
