Maria Kalesnikava, Viktar Babaryka, Maryna Zolatava, Ales Bialiatski, Maksim Znak are free! A total of 123 political prisoners have been released.
Today, more than 100 people were released. Most of them were deported to Ukraine. The release occurred after two days of negotiations between Trump's special envoy John Koehl and Lukashenko. Koehl reported that the US is lifting sanctions on Belarusian potash, while the Belarusian side announced the release of political prisoners.
Lukashenka's press service announced the release of 123 people. «As part of the agreements reached with U.S. President Donald Trump and at his request, in connection with the lifting of illegal sanctions against the potash industry of the Republic of Belarus, introduced by the Administration of the previous U.S. President Biden, and in connection with the transition to the practical plane of the process of lifting other illegal sanctions against the Republic of Belarus,» Lukashenka made a decision to pardon 123 citizens of different countries. Among the political prisoners are five citizens of Ukraine.
According to the report, since the end of November, Lukashenka has pardoned 156 people (including 31 Ukrainians and two Catholic priests, Henryk Akalatovich and Andrzej Juchniewicz). Among them are citizens of Great Britain, the United States, Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia, Australia, and Japan.
All released political prisoners have been deported from Belarus. Most of them went to Ukraine — 114 people, 104 of whom are Belarusians.
Everything was prepared in Vilnius to welcome them, but Lukashenka changed the route of the political prisoners' departure at the last moment, said Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Andrzej Poczobut is not among those released, the Polish Foreign Ministry said. Poczobut was given the condition of appealing to Alexander Lukashenko — Poczobut refused.
The first news about the released political prisoners was that Maria Kalesnikava is free. She was deported to Ukraine.
The coordinator of Viktar Babaryka's headquarters, who became one of the symbols of the election events, was arrested on September 7, 2020. Security forces tried to throw her out of Belarus, but Maria tore up her passport at the border and remained on Belarusian territory — one of the most dramatic moments of 2020. Kalesnikava was sentenced to 11 years in prison. In prison, Lukashenka's people introduced a regime of incommunicado for her, and relatives knew nothing about Maria or her health.
Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski is free. The chairman of Viasna was detained on July 14, 2021. He was sentenced to 10 years in a reinforced regime colony.
Bialiatski arrived in Vilnius.
Information about the release of Valiantsin Stefanovich, which appeared, has not been confirmed.
«Valiantsin Stefanovich was on the list for release, but it is not yet known for sure whether he was released,» the Viasna Human Rights Center said.
Uladz Labkovich, who, together with Stefanovich and Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski, was involved in the same case, has been released, according to human rights activists.
Viktar Babaryka is on the list of those pardoned. The former head of Belgazprombank and presidential candidate in the 2020 election was detained on July 6, 2020. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Viktar was also taken to Ukraine. The meeting of Babaryka, Znak and Kalesnikava was caught on video.
Maxim Znak is free. Maxim Znak is a lawyer, in 2020 a member of Viktar Babaryka's election headquarters. Detained on September 9, 2020, on September 6, 2021, sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was imprisoned in complete isolation, in incommunicado.
Maryna Zolatava has been released. The editor of the Tut.by portal has been behind bars since May 18, 2021. In March 2023, she was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony.
The prominent literary critic and political scientist Alexander Feduta is free. This is the last released participant in the «conspiracy» against Lukashenka. He was detained in Moscow on April 12, 2021, in connection with the case of an attempted coup in Belarus. He was charged under Part 1 of Article 357 of the Criminal Code (conspiracy to seize state power by unconstitutional means). Grigory Kostusev, Yuri Zenkovich were also involved in this case, in addition to Alexander. He was sentenced to 10 years in a reinforced regime colony.
Pavel Seviarynets is free. The politician, co-founder of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, was detained on June 7, 2020. He was sentenced to 7 years in a reinforced regime colony.
Alena Hnauk, a 68-year-old political prisoner from Brest, has been released.
Political prisoner Sergei Zelianovski from Peleng has been released. He was detained during a raid at the enterprise.
Maria Batalionak, a Lithuanian citizen of Belarusian origin, is free. She was sentenced to 4 years for her involvement in the Maris Mar Urban Garden project.
Roman Galuza is among those released. He is a Polish citizen convicted of treason.
Alexander Syrytsa, a basketball referee and Australian citizen of Belarusian origin, has been released.
Alla Sakalenko, a Latvian citizen, is free. She was sentenced to 7 years for «agent activity.»
Japanese citizen Nakanishi Masatoshi, a blogger accused of espionage by the Belarusian authorities, has been released. He worked as a lecturer at GSU named after Skaryna.
Illya Kniazev has been released — he is a 44-year-old Minsk resident who was convicted for participating in protests. He is a citizen of Belarus and Ukraine.
Natalia Belskaya, a U.S. citizen of Belarusian origin, is free.
Viachaslau Papsho, known as the blogger «Zhyve,» has been released.
Political prisoners Maryna Sankevich, Sofia Bachurinskaya, Uladzislau Yatsenka, Sergei Ivantsov, Natalia Malets have been released.
Dmitry Prazetski has been released. He was convicted for donations.
Andrei Shmai is free — a citizen of Ukraine, convicted of «espionage.»
Maxim Avreniev has been released. He is Ukrainian, but lived in Belarus. He has 5 children.
Alexander Birulya from Salihorsk is free. His wife Tatsiana was also a political prisoner, she was released under amnesty in September 2024. Alexander was taken into custody for distributing protest newspapers. He was charged with slander against Lukashenka. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
Uladzimir Harokh from Navahrudak has been released.
He was arrested back in August 2020.
Sergei Rudziankou from Chechersk has been released. He was detained at the end of 2022 after returning from Poland.
Uladzislau Yatsenka is free.
The guy was imprisoned for donations to the Kalinouski Regiment.
IT specialist Alexander Yashkin has been released. He was detained in May 2023 and sentenced to 4 years in prison under a whole package of political articles.
Auditor Ivan Kavalenka has been released.
He worked in the «big four» companies and is a member of the British Association of Chartered Certified Accountants ACCA. He was convicted in 2025 under two articles — «calls for causing harm to Belarus» and «inciting hatred.» The exact sentence and the essence of the charges are unknown.
Kristina Lapkovskaya has been released. The girl is 29 years old, she is a logistician. Kristina was convicted for participating in protests and for comments.
Artem Makavei is at large. The guy has Ukrainian citizenship, but has lived in Belarus for the last 15 years. The guy was sentenced to 6 years for «agent activity» in favor of Ukraine.
Former Belarusian political prisoners in Ukraine will be sent to a sanatorium, the same procedures will be applied to them as to the Ukrainians released from captivity. Further decisions are planned to be agreed with Polish and Lithuanian partners.
«Bysol» has launched an emergency collection for political prisoners released on December 13.
Today and yesterday, Minsk hosted negotiations between Trump's special envoy John Cole and Alexander Lukashenka. Cole announced that the United States is lifting sanctions on Belarusian potash.
In previous visits by Americans, the following were released: June 21 — 14 people, September 11 — 51 people.
The list of political prisoners released on December 13, see here. It is being updated.
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