Dec 13 (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko released 123 prisoners on Saturday in return for a further easing of sanctions by the United States.
Here are some of the most prominent people to be freed, according to Belarusian human rights group Viasna.
ALES BIALIATSKI, 63
Human rights campaigner Ales Bialiatski became a globally recognised symbol of resistance to the authoritarian rule of Lukashenko when he was awarded a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, only the fourth person to win the award while detained.
Many activists and opposition figures fled the country when Lukashenko used his security forces to crush mass pro-democracy protests in 2020, but Bialiatski decided to stay. He was arrested in 2021. In April 2023, he was sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony after being found guilty of finance and smuggling charges related to the funding of Viasna, the rights organisation that he founded. He denied the accusations, insisting they were politically motivated.
MARIA KALESNIKAVA, 43
Kalesnikava was a prominent leader of street protests against Lukashenko in 2020. Arrested by masked security officers on September 7 that year, she was bundled into a van, driven to the border with Ukraine and threatened with expulsion “alive or in bits”. She tore her passport into small pieces to thwart the attempt to deport her. Later, at her trial, she smiled and danced in a courtroom cage. In 2021, she was sentenced to 11 years in a penal colony on charges including extremist activity and conspiracy to seize power. She was subsequently placed on a list of “persons involved in terrorist activity”.
While in prison, Kalesnikava underwent an operation in 2022 for a peptic ulcer and peritonitis. Her sister told Reuters in 2024 she was being held incommunicado in conditions amounting to torture, and her family feared for her life.
VIKTAR BABARYKA, 62
Babaryka, a former banker, was arrested two months before the 2020 Belarus presidential election, in which he was attempting to run against Lukashenko. He was jailed for 14 years in July 2021 on corruption charges that he denied. Babaryka has suffered health problems while in prison, and underwent surgery in 2023 after doctors found fluid on his lungs. He was held incommunicado for a long period but in January 2025 was allowed to send a message to his family for the first time in nearly two years. Photographs and a short video, in which Babaryka appeared to be addressing his daughter, were published online by a prominent Belarusian journalist who visited him in prison.
MAXIM ZNAK, 44
Znak, a lawyer who was part of Babaryka’s election team, was tried alongside Maria Kalesnikava and sentenced in 2021 to 10 years for extremist activity and conspiracy to seize power. Like her, he was later added to the KGB security service’s list of “terrorists”.
MARYNA ZOLATAVA, 48
Zolatava, the editor-in-chief of independent media Tut.by, was arrested in May 2021. In 2023 she was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for incitement to hatred and calling for actions aimed at harming national security.
ULADZIMIR LABKOVICH, 47
Labkovich, a lawyer who spent more than 20 years campaigning for Viasna, was arrested in 2021. He was tried with Bialiatski and sentenced in 2023 to seven years in a penal colony. Viasna says his health has deteriorated significantly in prison and he suffers frequent headaches, insomnia and vision impairment.
VALIANTSIN STEFANOVIC, 53
Stefanovic, the deputy chair of Viasna, was arrested in 2021, tried alongside Bialiatski and Labkovich, and sentenced in 2023 to nine years in a penal colony. Viasna said that in July 2023, he was allowed to call his wife for the first time in two years.
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