Allan Roio, an Estonian citizen who was freed from a Belarusian prison on Saturday with the help of U.S. diplomatic efforts, said upon arriving in Estonia that no one should be held in conditions like those in Belarusian prisons in the 21st century.
In September 2020, Allan Roio founded a nonprofit organization in Estonia called the Fund of Belarusian Friends, aimed at collecting donations to support people who had fled the Belarusian regime.
However, the Estonian nonprofit Roio established never became operational, and a few months later, it was removed from the business register.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday evening after arriving in Tallinn, Roio said he created the charity fund to support large families who disagreed with the results of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election or had voted for someone else.
“The local dictator ordered that these people be left without jobs, without food. Why it affected me personally — being a father of a large family myself, I felt it was my duty. My wife is Belarusian, and I am tied to that country for life, since my three children are as Belarusian as they are Estonian,” Roio said.
More read: ERR.EE
