Dozens of political prisoners released by Belarus this week under a US-brokered agreement were forcibly deported, opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Friday, September 12, 2025.
On Thursday, Minsk freed 52 prisoners as part of a deal that will see sanctions on Belarus’ national airline lifted.
The announcement came after White House special envoy John Coale met with President Aleksandr Lukashenko in Minsk.
Among those freed was an employee of the European Union. All were transferred to Lithuania.
Tsikhanouskaya welcomed the release but condemned the terms. “Of course, we are so happy to see people free, but let’s be honest, what happened yesterday wasn’t real freedom.
It was forced deportation,” she told reporters in Vilnius. Her senior adviser Franak Viachorka noted that nearly half of those deported were already close to completing their sentences.
Some freed prisoners expressed gratitude to US President Donald Trump for securing their release. “If I hadn’t been pardoned, I would have remained in jail for six more years,” said Dzmitry Kuchuk. Others, however, said they would have preferred to stay in Belarus, closer to their families.
Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania, urged Western governments to press Lukashenko to allow released political prisoners to remain in Belarus. “People have to have the right to stay in Belarus,” she said.
The 52 freed this week mark the largest group pardoned by Lukashenko in recent years, though the figure falls short of the 1,300 to 1,400 releases Trump had reportedly requested.
Earlier in June, activist Siarhei Tsikhanouski—Tsikhanouskaya’s husband—was released alongside 13 others following US mediation by envoy Keith Kellogg, part of broader efforts to pressure Minsk toward aiding peace in Ukraine.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for more than three decades and is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has faced years of sanctions and isolation from the West due to his authoritarian grip and support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.