Belarus Frees 123 Political Prisoners Including Nobel Laureate in U.S. Sanctions Deal

On Saturday, Belarusian authorities opened the prison gates for 123 people. Among them was Ales Bialiatski, a 63-year-old human rights advocate who had spent 1,613 days behind bars and won the Nobel Peace Prize while still locked up. Also freed were Maria Kolesnikova, a flutist and opposition organizer who had torn up her passport at the Ukrainian border rather than be deported, and Viktar Babaryka, a banker who had dared to run for president against Alexander Lukashenko. The releases came as part of a negotiated settlement with Washington: the United States agreed to lift sanctions on Belarus's fertilizer exports, a vital source of revenue for the country's economy.

Lukashenko has controlled Belarus, a nation of 9.5 million people, for more than three decades with what amounts to absolute authority. The country sits as Russia's closest ally and has allowed Moscow to use its territory as a staging ground for the invasion of Ukraine. The West has responded with repeated rounds of sanctions, targeting both the regime's human rights abuses and its complicity in the war. Since July 2024, Lukashenko has released hundreds of prisoners—a shift widely understood as an attempt to ease the economic and diplomatic pressure bearing down on his government.

Bialiatski founded Viasna, Belarus's oldest and most prominent human rights organization. He was convicted on charges of smuggling and financing actions that violated public order—accusations that international observers have dismissed as politically motivated—and received a ten-year sentence. He spent his imprisonment at a penal colony in Gorki, a facility known for beatings and forced labor. When he walked free on Saturday, he was visibly thin and pale but spoke with clarity. "It felt like I jumped out of icy water into a normal, warm room," he told the Associated Press. He immediately committed himself to continuing his human rights work, noting that more than a thousand political prisoners remain in Belarusian jails simply for choosing freedom. "Of course, I am their voice," he said.

Kolesnikova had been a central figure in the mass protests that convulsed Belarus in 2020, working closely with opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced into exile after challenging Lukashenko in that year's presidential election. Kolesnikova became an even more potent symbol of resistance when authorities attempted to deport her in September 2020. Driven to the Ukrainian border, she tore her passport into pieces and walked back across into Belarus, where she was immediately arrested again. The 43-year-old professional musician was convicted of conspiracy to seize power and sentenced to 11 years. She fell seriously ill during her imprisonment and required surgery. Upon her release, she spoke of "incredible happiness" at seeing the faces of people she loved again, but her words also carried the weight of those still confined. "I am thinking about those people who are not yet free," she said, "and I am very much looking forward to the moment when we can all hug each other."

Barbaryka had entered politics in 2020 as a banker and philanthropist, announcing his intention to run against Lukashenko. He quickly built broad popular support, but authorities refused to register him as a candidate. Less than two months before the election, he was imprisoned. He was later convicted on corruption charges widely seen as politically engineered and sentenced to 14 years. The U.S. embassy at the time called the verdict a "cruel sham," saying it demonstrated that Lukashenko's regime "will stop at nothing to keep power." Maxim Znak, a lawyer who worked with Babaryka's campaign and was convicted alongside him, was also released on Saturday.

Among the other freed prisoners was Maryna Zolatava, editor of Tut.by, one of Belarus's most widely read independent news outlets. She had been arrested in May 2021 and sentenced to 12 years on charges of incitement and distributing materials deemed to threaten national security—accusations that authorities routinely deploy against journalists and opposition figures. International press freedom organizations, including Reporters Without Borders, had repeatedly called for her release.

Yet the Saturday releases, significant as they are, represent only a fraction of those held. Andrzej Poczobut, a correspondent for Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza and a prominent voice for Belarus's Polish minority, remains imprisoned. Arrested in March 2021 for his coverage of the 2020 protests, he was convicted in February 2023 of damaging national security and inciting hatred, and sentenced to eight years in a maximum-security facility. Despite health concerns, he has refused to seek a pardon from Lukashenko. Also still behind bars are Viasna activists Marfa Rabkova and Valiantsin Stefanovic, and Eduard Babaryka, the son of the freed presidential candidate, who had helped manage his father's campaign.

The deal signals a potential diplomatic opening between Belarus and the United States, though the country remains tethered to Russia and continues to facilitate Moscow's war in Ukraine. For those released on Saturday, freedom came after years of confinement in conditions marked by violence and deprivation. For those still imprisoned—more than a thousand by Bialiatski's count—the question of when, or whether, their own release will come remains unanswered.