On 29 September 2026, 879 political prisoners were still held. Detentions and trials had not stopped. Since May 2020 the number of former political prisoners has reached almost four thousand. About 900 have been pardoned, and 234 of them were expelled from the country. Viasna still calls torture and degrading conditions systemic. And those who are already out are still pressured, at home and abroad.
Viasna lawyer Sviatlana Golovneva says the releases assisted by the United States are tied to talks about sanctions, not to any broader improvement in human rights. The example she gives is Mikalai Statkevich. He was pardoned in that way, refused to leave, was imprisoned again, and stayed in prison until he had a stroke. After his release it turned out he is banned from leaving the country. The pressure also reached his wife, Maryna Adamovich.
At home: registers, a job, recruitment
Those who stayed in Belarus are often on the “extremist” or “terrorist” lists, or under preventive registration or supervision. That closes off work, a bank, a mobile phone. In August the Dissidentby project wrote that families are summoned to the police more often, threatened with an exit ban and pushed to cooperate. In May in Homiel, former political prisoners were called in large numbers to “preventive talks”: men in plain clothes asked about their views, how they voted, contacts abroad and help they had received. Those released on 19 March are made to check in regularly. Breaking the restrictions brings the threat of arrest and a fine.
They are told to find a job quickly and to bring a certificate to the police. A person labelled a “terrorist” cannot open an account, so they cannot receive an official wage. Money in old accounts is blocked too. A permit is promised for the sum of a “subsistence minimum.” How to get it is not clear. A SIM card cannot be registered. One former political prisoner said that if you do not find work yourself, the police threaten to send you to a landfill. The wage goes to a separate account, and to take it you file a request that can sit for a long time.
They try to recruit. One pardoned man came to a talk at the station and found a KGB officer waiting. Another, who had just finished his term and is on the register, was called in the spring to a stranger. The man did not give his name. He asked what prison had been like, then about political views and how an acquaintance might be useful to the agencies.
A new case after the old one
On 29 September, 66 people were held behind bars on new criminal cases. Another 98 had been convicted on new cases and already released. Among those taken again:
Doctor Ruslan Badamshin was detained at least five times after the election, then given three years of “home khimiya” for photos from the 2020 protests. In June 2025 he was arrested again in the Gayun case. The result was two and a half years in a colony. Boris Vitko, 71, from Lyakhovichi, was first given two years of “home khimiya” for “insulting” a Baranavichy judge. In 2023 he was taken on heavier charges, including “calls to harm national security”: seven years and three months. In prison he had a stroke. Vitaly Korshun was given two months of arrest in 2021 for “interfering with a police officer.” In the winter of 2024 he was given seven years in a colony. Stanislav Mochalov, a volunteer with Homiel Viasna, served three years for the protests and was released in December 2023. A year later he was taken again: four years of strict regime for “facilitating extremist activity.” Pavel Churkin received a year in 2021 for “insulting” dictator Lukashenka and was released in May 2022. In early April 2024 he was detained on suspicion of cooperating with Ukrainian military intelligence. The sentence was 10 years, on charges of taking part in hostilities and “treason.” Denis Tsybulsky was given “khimiya” in 2023 for protests in Minsk. In early May 2024 a new case of an “extremist formation” brought five years of enhanced regime.
Those who were taken out
In April 2026 it became known that the authorities were cancelling the passports of people expelled in September and December 2025. Some were not given their passports back at the border. Known cases include Ales Bialiatski, Uladzimir Labkovich, Dzmitry Kazlou and Eduard Palchys. Labkovich’s passport was valid until 2027, Kazlou’s until 2032 — he had renewed it in the Babruisk colony in 2022 — and Bialiatski’s until 2028. All three were declared invalid.
New cases are opened for what a person does after leaving. In May a case was opened against Pavel Seviarynets for organising a peaceful assembly in Vilnius for Freedom Day. In August his flat was seized in that case, over his speech on 25 March. On 5 August Ales Bialiatski appeared in the Russian interior ministry’s wanted database. The ground given is a “criminal case.” The article is not stated. On 21 May Labkovich’s flat was searched. The new case is for what he did after release. Viasna preliminarily links it to the Freedom Day rally in Vilnius. The charge has not been officially spelled out. In March 2025 another case for “facilitating extremist activity” was opened against Leanid Sudalenko. At his registered address in Homiel officers drew up a report that he was not at home, and he was put on a wanted list. In April 2026 a case over an interview with Viasna was opened against 26-year-old Anna Kuris, who had already been expelled. For interviews with independent outlets, including Viasna, a case was opened against Pavel Nikitenko, expelled on 11 September 2025. He was put on an international wanted list. Also wanted are Mikalai Dziadok, Aleh Kulesha, Aliaksei Ramanau, Aliaksandr Antoniuk and others. Often a person knows only that their name has appeared in a Russian database.
Police come to the relatives of those who were taken out and ask where they are. A Viasna lawyer explains that, for the register, these people count as released in the ordinary way, so preventive supervision follows them. Some receive draft notices by post. In May the KGB sealed the flat of expelled Yauhen Kislau. Court bailiffs are demanding a debt from Ihar Karnei, probably for a prison uniform he did not hand back.
Social media accounts are also listed as “extremist materials.” In May, the page of the artist Ales Pushkin, who died in a colony. In April, the page of Mikalai Statkevich and the pages of Andrei Chepyuk, Antonina Konovalova and Uladzimir Bulauski.
Golovneva sums it up this way: some are released because of negotiations, a larger share serve out the term and come out under control. In both cases the persecution does not end. The authorities provide no rehabilitation, no compensation and no return to an ordinary life. They do not admit the violations as their own.