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# World Liberty Congress in Berlin: Belarusian prisoners' robes on show
- URL: https://blog.zolak.lt/world-liberty-congress-in-berlin-belarusian-prisoners-robes-on-show/
- Published: 2026-11-13T07:02:44.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-13T07:02:44.000Z
- Description: Robes of political prisoners from seven countries, Belarus included, went on show in Berlin. Who made it and where it goes next.
- Author: ZOLAK
- Tags: Belarus, #auto

The World Liberty Congress used Berlin Freedom Week to put political prisoners in front of people who make decisions. Its exhibition "Conscience in Prison Robes" opened on 10 November at the Colosseum on Schönhauser Allee, at the Berlin Freedom Conference. It showed the clothes political prisoners wore in their cells, and Belarus was among the countries on display.

The timing was deliberate. Berlin Freedom Week is held around the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and this exhibition was about people who are still behind walls.

## What the World Liberty Congress showed in Berlin

Two people curated it. Andrei Sannikov is a former Belarusian political prisoner and leads the European Belarus civic campaign. Sai is an artist and human rights activist from Myanmar whose father, Linn Htut, was jailed after the 2021 military coup. The European Belarus foundation prepared the exhibition with the Myanmar Museum of Peace.

Robes from ten countries were planned. Robes from Uganda, Iran and Cameroon could not be brought out, so seven made it to Berlin: from Venezuela, Belarus, Cuba, Cambodia, Tibet, Vietnam and Myanmar. Next to them were everyday prison objects, documents and video testimony from former prisoners.

The idea started with a joke that wasn't one: at a conference in the summer, Sannikov and Sai both turned up in prison clothes. Sannikov had brought the jacket he wore in a Belarusian penal colony.

## The Belarusian stories

The exhibition gave a lot of space to women. Two former Belarusian political prisoners speak on video: Alena Lazarchyk and Polina Sharendo-Panasiuk. Sharendo-Panasiuk's bright pink floral dress was on display. Novaya Gazeta Europe reports that she spent two of her four years inside in punishment cells, and that she calls herself a prisoner of war rather than a prisoner.

Sannikov says he spent most of the conference walking politicians, officials, journalists and human rights workers through the rooms, talking about prisoners around the world and in Belarus. Speaking to Charter97, he explained why they built it: "We decided that this should not be talked about, but shouted."

> "Freeing political prisoners and freeing countries from dictators are tasks of the same kind." — Andrei Sannikov

## Why it matters

Belarusian political prisoners are often a footnote in Western news, next to bigger wars and bigger names. Hanging a Belarusian dress next to a Venezuelan robe and a Tibetan one makes Sai's point visible: the methods of repression are strikingly similar everywhere, and, in his words, today's dictatorships act as "a kind of brotherhood". The people fighting them can work together too. Sannikov puts the number of political prisoners worldwide at more than a million.

It is also a small reminder that the Lukashenka regime's prisoners are not forgotten. Every story told to a politician or a journalist is a name that is harder to ignore when releases are negotiated.

## What's next

The Berlin show ran on 10 and 11 November. The curators say they will take it to other European cities and countries and add more exhibits, because people keep asking to bring it home. Watch the World Liberty Congress and European Belarus channels for dates. If it comes to Vilnius, we'll write about it.

Want to do something now rather than wait? Our guide on [how to help political prisoners in Belarus from abroad](https://blog.zolak.lt/political-prisoners-in-belarus-how-to-help-them-from-abroad/) lists practical ways to help. And for a reminder that people do walk out, read about the [Vawkavysk chat case](https://blog.zolak.lt/vawkavysk-chat-case-the-last-political-prisoners-walk-free/).

## Sources

- [Novaya Gazeta Europe: "Conscience in prison robes" (12 November 2026)](https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/11/12/sovest-v-tiuremnykh-robakh?ref=blog.zolak.lt)
- [Moy BY / Charter97: exhibition on political prisoners opens in Berlin (10 November 2026)](https://moyby.com/news/689709?ref=blog.zolak.lt)
- [Moy BY / Charter97: Andrei Sannikov interview (11 November 2026)](https://moyby.com/news/689878?ref=blog.zolak.lt)