many believe that lukashenko wants to recreate stalin style grip on the country, so nobody dares to contest the next election. many belarussians came here to lithuania in an attempt to flee the repressions. there are currently around 19,000 of them living here. in retaliation, the belarussian regime has decided to target their relatives who stayed behind. and many fear that this isjust the beginning. anatoly was detained more times than he can remember, but he says that families of activists were not being targeted before. translation: this is the first time. it was always a war, but there were some rules. there were some lines they wouldn t cross. now we have gotten to the point where, before shooting their enemies, they put our children in front of us. in a country that claims to have no political prisoners, there are currently almost 1,500 people in prison for political reasons. one of them is ex presidential hopeful viktar babaryka. his son eduard was his campaign manager
in connection with suspicion for tax evasion. eduard babaryka has spent almost three years in a detention centre without a trial, longer than any other political prisoner. the authorities have found new charges to justify his continued detention, including organising mass riots. eduard was detained injune, but protest in belarus began in august. it s obvious that eduard was imprisoned because his father tried to run in the election. the carjourney between minsk and vilnius takes only around three hours. yet many belarussians who live here say that there is simply no way they could ever go back. translation: you did nothing wrong and you did not break the law. - but you can t go home. i can t return to belarus until the political situation there changes.