Belarus frees 52 political prisoners, including 9 journalists

The Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ) wel­comes the release on Thurs­day of 52 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, includ­ing 9 jour­nal­ists, by the Belaru­sian author­i­ties. There are still 27 jour­nal­ists in prison in Belarus. The EFJ demands their imme­di­ate release.

On Thurs­day, Belarus has freed 52 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers of dif­fer­ent nation­al­i­ties. They have crossed into Lithua­nia, in what appeared to be the largest release of detainees in years. The release was announced as Belaru­sian leader Alexan­der Lukashenko met in Min­sk with John Coale, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump. In return, the Unit­ed States announced that they were lift­ing sanc­tions on the Belaru­sian state-run air­line Belavia and con­sid­er­ing reopen­ing ithe US embassy in Min­sk.

Nine Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists were among the 52 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers released on Thurs­day with the Unit­ed States medi­a­tion, accord­ing to rights group Vias­na: Losik Igor Alek­san­drovich, Mozheiko Pavel Ivanovich, Mant­se­vich Alexan­der Boriso­vich, Tim­o­shchuk Ele­na Petro­v­na, Slavniko­va Iri­na Alek­san­drov­na, Shchiryako­va Lar­isa Fedorov­na, Podobed Pavel Vasilievich, Lazarev Vyach­eslav Dmitrievich, and Merkis Evgeniy Alek­san­drovich.

Accord­ing to the updat­ed fig­ures pro­vid­ed by our affil­i­ates at the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), there are still 27 jour­nal­ists behind bars in Belarus, includ­ing promi­nent jour­nal­ists Andrzej Poc­zobut, Kat­siary­na Andree­va and Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau.

“We are obvi­ous­ly delight­ed that our col­leagues have been released after being unjust­ly impris­oned on false charges by Lukashenko’s regime,” said EFJ Pres­i­dent Maja Sev­er. “But we can­not be sat­is­fied with this half-mea­sure. Togeth­er with BAJ and our Pol­ish affil­i­ates, we demand the imme­di­ate release of the 27 jour­nal­ists who remain impris­oned in Belarus, as well as hun­dreds of oth­er inno­cent cit­i­zens.”

Almost 1,200 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers remain behind bars in Belarus, accord­ing to Vias­na.