Following an amnesty in July, Belarusian dictator Lukashenko has released another group of political prisoners. However, more than 1,400 remain behind bars. There has been no sign of life from the most famous of them for more than 18 months. Relatives do not even know whether they are still alive.
Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned 30 political prisoners who were convicted in connection with mass pro-democracy protests four years ago. According to a statement from the presidency, 14 women and 16 men were pardoned by decree. No names were given. Meanwhile, several of the most prominent imprisoned opposition politicians remain missing. There has been no sign of life from some of them for a year and a half now.
Some of those now pardoned are “seriously ill” while others are “of retirement age,” it said. All of them have “admitted their guilt” and “deeply” regret their actions. The pardon enables these people to “rehabilitate themselves before the state and society,” it said.
The Belarusian dictator Lukashenko violently suppressed the protests against the demonstrably fraudulent election in August 2020, and the opposition has been massively persecuted since then. Over 30,000 people have been arrested since the election. Many of them were tortured and mistreated. Several people died behind bars. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, opponents of the war have also been persecuted. In the war against Ukraine, Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for more than 30 years, is one of Vladimir Putin’s most important allies.
Lukashenko “pardons” cancer-stricken challenger
Today, the human rights organization “Vyazna” counts more than 1,400 political prisoners in Belarus, but the number of unreported cases is probably much higher. Tens of thousands, especially young and well-educated people, were forced to leave the country. One of the political prisoners is the “Vyazna” founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Byalyatsky. He was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to ten years in prison in March 2023.
According to “Vyazna”, 18 political prisoners were released by amnesty or pardon on July 3. Among them were 4 women and 14 men, including the cancer-stricken opposition politician Ryhor Kastusiou, who challenged Lukashenko in the 2010 presidential election and then spent several years in prison.
Maria Kolesnikova missing since emergency surgery in custody
Hundreds of political prisoners remain behind bars. According to reports from former prisoners, they are being held under inhumane conditions. Political prisoners are beaten and tortured, and they are also marked with yellow patches, activist Tatsiana Khomich, the sister of the imprisoned opposition politician Maria Kolesnikova, explained in an interview with ntv.de in March. “They are checked more often than other prisoners and are often thrown into the punishment cell for the smallest of offenses,” she says.
Her sister, Maria Kolesnikova, was initially chief of staff of the promising opposition candidate Viktor Babariko in 2020. After his imprisonment, she formed a trio with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Veronika Tsepkalo and challenged dictator Lukashenko. In September 2020, she was kidnapped by the KGB secret service and later sentenced to eleven years in prison. A few weeks after an emergency operation behind bars, Kolesnikova disappeared without a trace in February 2023. The authorities “don’t even say where she is and under what conditions she is being held captive. We don’t know how she is and whether she is still alive,” Khomich said in an ntv.de interview in March.
There has also been no information about other prominent opposition figures such as Viktor Babariko, Sergei Tikhanovsky, Mykola Statkevich or Maxim Znak for more than 18 months.