Story perspectives

Belarus Exiles Political Prisoners Amid Controversial Pardons

12/22/2025

Center

Labkovich Exposes Deportations

Belarusian authorities forcibly exiled political prisoners and stripped them of identity documents.
Uladzimir Labkovich, a Belarusian activist and political prisoner released on December 13, described being blindfolded and taken to Ukraine without a passport.
Labkovich spent more than 200 days in solitary confinement.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya condemned the deportations as inhumane.
Amnesty International warns that pardons may be a political maneuver rather than a genuine policy shift.

Left

Bialiatski Freed from Imprisonment

Ales Bialiatski, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was released from a Belarusian penal colony and taken to Lithuania after nearly five years of a 10-year sentence on politically motivated charges.
The release, with 122 other prisoners, followed U.S. negotiations lifting sanctions on Belarusian potash fertilizer.
Bialiatski expressed concern that the release was part of a transactional arrangement benefiting Belarus economically.
Viasna reports 1,103 political prisoners remain incarcerated in Belarus.

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Labkovich Exposes Deportations

Belarusian authorities forcibly exiled political prisoners and stripped them of identity documents.
Uladzimir Labkovich, a Belarusian activist and political prisoner released on December 13, described being blindfolded and taken to Ukraine without a passport.
Labkovich spent more than 200 days in solitary confinement.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya condemned the deportations as inhumane.
Amnesty International warns that pardons may be a political maneuver rather than a genuine policy shift.

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