After the visit to Minsk by U.S. special envoy for Belarus John Cole, the Belarusian authorities removed a new group of pardoned prisoners from the country. According to the publication, Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 123 people: 9 ended up in Lithuania and 114 in Ukraine, while none were sent to Poland. Before the transfer, cameras at crossings with Poland and Lithuania were reportedly switched off, but the prisoners were ultimately taken through the closed Belarus-Ukraine border. In return, the United States lifted sanctions on Belarusian potash fertilizers.
Those taken to Lithuania included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and several foreign nationals or Belarusians with second citizenship. Bialiatski, head of the Viasna human rights center, had spent more than four years in prison out of a ten-year sentence. Prosecutors said the rights defenders had brought in money to pay fines and lawyers. Also sent to Lithuania were Japanese citizen Nakanishi Masatoshi, Latvian citizen Alla Sokolenko, Lithuanian citizen Maria Batalyonok, Polish citizen Raman Haluza, Australian citizen Alexander Syrytsa, and U.S. citizen Natalia Belskaya, who was freed after negotiations.
Among those taken to Ukraine were members of Viktar Babaryka’s team. Babaryka himself was detained on June 18, 2020 and later sentenced to 14 years in prison. His son Eduard received eight years, later increased by two more, and remained behind bars. Maria Kalesnikava and Maksim Znak, arrested on September 7, 2020, were sentenced to 11 and 10 years respectively. Little had been known about them for a long time before this transfer.
Ukrainian citizens were also on the pardon list. The return home of Andrei Shmai and Artyom Makovey has been confirmed; both had been convicted in cases involving agent activity, and Shmai was also accused of espionage. Shmai had lived in Belarus for more than ten years and was detained on January 19, 2023. Makovey, who worked as a DJ, was detained on January 27, 2023; his mother said the KGB told her that her son posed a threat to the Republic of Belarus. Makovey’s known sentence was six years.
Among the media figures removed were former Tut.by editor-in-chief Maryna Zolatava and writer Alexander Feduta. According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, 27 media workers still remain imprisoned in the country. Other freed prisoners named in the report were Yelena Hnauk, Sofia Bachurynska, Natalya Malets, and Pavel Seviarynets, one of the best-known opposition politicians, who had been serving a seven-year sentence since 2020.
The publication writes that most of those expelled were not professional politicians but people convicted over donations, help for families of political prisoners, social media posts and comments, and public condemnation of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Their final destination after crossing the border remained unclear, although the Ukrainian authorities said the released Belarusian political prisoners could be sent to Lithuania or Poland if they wished.