Journalist Igor Karney On His Release: Handcuffs, A Bag On My Head, And I Was Taken Away
- 21.06.2025, 20:11
A political prisoner has been through a lot.
On Friday, June 20, a political prisoner, journalist of "Radio Svaboda" Igor Karnei was in the penal colony.
In the morning the administration staff came for him. The man thought that he would be sent to a punitive isolation cell. But instead, the next day Karnei found himself in Vilnius.
Together with Sergei Tikhanovski and 12 other political prisoners, he was released after the visit of the special representative of the U.S. President Keith Kellogg to Minsk. Igor Karnei told "Zerkalo" how he learned that he was going to the capital of Lithuania instead of the punishment cell and the details of the trip in a KGB car to the Lithuanian border:
- I was called just "for a search," - says Igor. - They went through all my things very thoroughly, made a detailed inventory. Then they took me to the lagoon, and there I was until 16.00. Then there was another search.
Karney decided that he would be sent to the punishment cell.
- I hadn't been to the punishment cell for several months, so I decided that after the search I would go there. Spending time there is a common practice for political prisoners," the man explained. - There was no indication that my release might happen. I didn't know that there were some negotiations going on.
At around 5 p.m. the colony staff came for Igor again. In the hands of one of them the man noticed a folder with his personal file. That's why he thought that he was being transferred to another colony. The prisoner was taken outside. A civilian car and several people in civilian clothes were waiting for him there.
- Only in the company of KGB officers are taken out of the colony in such cars," the man continued. - Then everything went according to the classics of the genre: handcuffs, a bag on my head, and I was taken away. After three and a half hours we reached Minsk, the main KGB building on Independence Avenue.
When we arrived, Karnei was taken to a cell with ten other political prisoners.
- Nobody understood why we were all in Minsk," says the interlocutor. - The KGB officers did not explain anything to us, and we began to wonder whether it was a release, or transfer to another place, or a new "promotion" to add time. Nothing was known. We decided that since we were all here, something extraordinary would probably happen next.
In the morning of June 21, KGB officers came to the cell and began to take the prisoners one by one into the corridor.
- There they gave each of us the things we had arrived with the day before. Then they put us on a bus, - says Kornei.
The KGB officers did not tell us what was going on. After the personal belongings were given to everyone, they took them to the courtyard, where the bus was already waiting. Everyone was handcuffed and black bags were put on their heads. After they were put into the cabin, and the bus started to move.
- They didn't explain anything to us, they just took us somewhere, - says the former political prisoner. - Together with me there were 13 other people. They had handcuffs on their hands, bags on their heads, and escorts on the neighboring seats. In such conditions it was impossible to talk to other political prisoners, we did not understand what was going on. After a while the bus picked up speed, and it became clear to me that we were leaving Minsk. Not far from the border we were handed over to the US Embassy staff.