Belarus Releases 14 Prisoners Including Journalist Karnei

 

Ihar Karnei, a for­mer jour­nal­ist with RFE/RL’s Belaru­sian Ser­vice, known local­ly as Radio Svabo­da, was also released. He was arrest­ed in 2023 and sen­tenced to three years in prison on “extrem­ism” charges that he denies.

The first pho­to of Ihar Kar­ney at large. Vil­nius, June 21, 2025. Pho­to: Svet­lana Tsikhanouskaya’s Telegram chan­nel

Belarus has released 14 pris­on­ers, includ­ing Siarhei Tsikhanous­ki, who was detained in May 2020 while attempt­ing to run for pres­i­dent against author­i­tar­i­an leader Alek­san­dr Lukashenko.

Tsikhanouski’s wife, Svy­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya, who end­ed up run­ning in her hus­band’s place con­firmed the release.

“My hus­band Siarhei is free! It’s hard to describe the joy in my heart,” she wrote in a post on X with a video show­ing the two embrac­ing after he got out of a trans­port van.

John Coale, a deputy of US envoy Kei­th Kel­logg, said in a post on X on June 21 that a total of 14 pris­on­ers were released in an agree­ment helped through the coop­er­a­tion of the Lithuan­ian gov­ern­ment.

https://t.me/tsikhanouskaya/7037

Ihar Karnei, a for­mer jour­nal­ist with RFE/RL’s Belaru­sian Ser­vice, known local­ly as Radio Svabo­da, was also released. He was arrest­ed in 2023 and sen­tenced to three years in prison on “extrem­ism” charges that he denies.

Tsikhanouski’s attempt­ed to run against Lukashenko in an August 2020 elec­tion, but was detained before the vote. His wife took over the can­di­da­cy for the oppo­si­tion.

Lukashenko was declared the vic­tor of the elec­tion, trig­ger­ing protests by tens of thou­sands of Belaru­sians who say the bal­lot­ing was rigged and that Tsikhanouskaya won.

Pic­ture shows RFE/RL Pres­i­dent and CEO Stephen Capus with Ihar Karnei, a for­mer jour­nal­ist with RFE/RL’s Belaru­sian Ser­vice

The demon­stra­tions last­ed for months as Belaru­sians demand­ed Lukashenko, in pow­er since 1994, step down and hold fresh elec­tions. He refused.

The August 2020 vote was reject­ed as fraud­u­lent by the West, and the coun­try, at Lukashenko’s direc­tion, began to crack down on dis­sent, arrest­ing thou­sands and push­ing most lead­ing oppo­si­tion fig­ures — includ­ing Tsikhanouskaya — out of the coun­try.

Sev­er­al pro­test­ers were killed in the vio­lence and rights orga­ni­za­tions say there is cred­i­ble evi­dence of tor­ture being used against some of those detained.

Lukashen­ka denies vot­er fraud and refused to nego­ti­ate with the oppo­si­tion led by Svy­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya.

Karnei is a vet­er­an jour­nal­ist who worked with RFE/RL for over 20 years.

He was detained in Min­sk in July 2023 and sen­tenced in March 2024 to three years in prison for tak­ing part in an “extrem­ist” group because of his asso­ci­a­tion with the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists.

In Decem­ber 2024, his sen­tence was extend­ed by eight months.

The Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty rec­og­nized Karnei as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.

“We are deeply grate­ful to Pres­i­dent [Don­ald] Trump for secur­ing the release of this brave jour­nal­ist, who suf­fered at the hands of the Belaru­sian author­i­ties,” RFE/RL Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer Steve Capus, who met Karnei upon his release, said.

“We thank Sec­re­tary [of State Mar­co] Rubio and his team, the Lithuan­ian gov­ern­ment, and the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty for their sup­port of our impris­oned jour­nal­ists.”

The Euro­pean Union, Unit­ed States, Cana­da, and oth­er coun­tries have refused to rec­og­nize Lukashenko as the legit­i­mate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belaru­sian offi­cials with sanc­tions in response to the “fal­si­fi­ca­tion” of the vote and the post­elec­tion crack­down.