The government of Belarus released 250 political prisoners, including journalist Katsiaryna Andreeva, on Thursday in a deal brokered by the United States, with 235 released domestically and 15 people deported to Lithuania. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its Belarusian affiliate in exile, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), in calling for the release of the dozens of journalists and hundreds of political prisoners who remain behind bars in Belarus.
The EFJ welcomes the release of the journalists who were among 250 prisoners freed on Thursday as part of a deal in which the United States agreed to ease sanctions against the Belarusian financial sector, and remove all remaining U.S. sanctions on potash exports.
On Thursday, U.S. Special Envoy John Coale met in Minsk with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, who pardoned all the released. Fifteen of those freed, including journalist Katsiaryna Andreeva, blogger Eduard Palchys, human rights activists Valiantsin Stefanovich, Marfa Rabkova and Nastassya Loika, were deported to Lithuania without passports, while 235 were released in Belarus, including journalists and media workers Oleg Petrovich Suprunyuk, Dzmitry Navazhylau, Ales Marchanka,Valerija Kastsiuhova, and Anton Kazelski.
“On the one hand, I am very glad that our friends, our colleagues have been released from prison,” said BAJ President Andrei Bastunets. “We do not yet know the exact number and all the names of those released. (…) But today we cannot, we have no right to forget about our colleagues who remain behind bars. About all political prisoners. In just a few weeks, several of our colleagues were sentenced to huge prison terms : 9, 12, 14 years. This shows that the situation in Belarus is not getting better. I would like the authorities to take consistent actions, aimed at releasing all prisoners and all journalists”.
“The lifting of US sanctions must be accompanied not only by the release of all political prisoners still detained in Belarus, but also by the swift restoration of democracy and the rule of law,” said EFJ President Maja Sever. “We cannot normalise diplomatic relations with a government that continues to flout human rights and press freedom”.
Source: EFJ
