Born in 1981, Maxim Znak is an international lawyer from Belarus who, after the presidential election of August 2020, gathered hard evidence of the many violations of the electoral process and sought to take legal action by ensuring that the election results were reviewed by an independent body. Maxim Znak was arrested on 9 September 2020 and held in Remand Prison no. 1 in Minsk until 26 December 2021. This prison has the shocking reputation of being the only one in Europe where the death penalty is still being carried out. It was here that Znak wrote his stories.

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