More than 20 political prisoners were released on pardon, including Kseniya Lutskina and Vasil Berasneu Updated

On August 16, Lukashenka signed a decree pardoning 30 political prisoners, including 14 women and 16 men, and some of them have serious illnesses. Over the past 24 hours, political prisoners have begun to leave the penal colonies on pardon. As of August 22, Viasna human rights defenders know the names of 19 released political prisoners, among them Vasil Berasneu, Ala Zuyeva, Volha Stabrouskaya, Volha Novikava, Iryna Sankouskaya, and journalist Kseniya Lutskina. Human rights defenders do not publish the names of other released prisoners for their safety. 

In the photo: Volha Novikava, Iryna Sankouskaya, and Kseniya Lutskina

What do we know about the pardoned?

On the evening of August 20, propagandists from the BT TV channel published the first video with some of the freed women: Ala Zuyeva, Volha Stabrouskaya, Volha Novikava, Iryna Sankouskaya, and Kseniya Lutskina. The women served their sentences in Homeĺ women's colony No. 4. 

It is known that in imprisonment, Kseniya Lutskina, who was sentenced to eight years in a penal colony, began to have severe health problems: she has a tumor growing in her brain. Earlier, propagandists reported that among those pardoned there are people with serious illnesses.

Volha Novikava, along with her husband Viktar, were sentenced to imprisonment for participating in protests in 2020 (Article 342 of the Criminal Code). It is noteworthy that her 35-year-old husband Viktar Novikau was also released on pardon, but on July 3.

Political prisoner Iryna Sankouskaya was sentenced in December 2023 to one and a half years of imprisonment. She was found guilty under Article 370 (insulting state symbols), Part 1 of Article 368 (insulting Lukashenka), Article 369 (insulting a representative of the government) of the Criminal Code.

A senior citizen with cancer, Ala Zuyeva, was sentenced to two and a half years in a penal colony uner two defamation articles. Ala has leukemia, and the court did not take this into account when passing sentence. 

Volha Stabrouskaya, a resident of Orša, was found guilty of "insulting Lukashenka." The woman was sentenced to one year and three months of imprisonment. Recently, the woman's illnesses have worsened; she has a disability of the third group. Her only daughter is also ill. She, like Volha's grandson, has a hearing disability. 

Human rights activists also learned about the release of the 74-year-old chairman of the Trade Union of Radio Electronic Industry Vasil Berasneu, sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. It is known that during his stay in the pre-trial detention center, Vasil's health deteriorated significantly: he suffered from pain in his only kidney. The situation was so critical that medical treatment did not make sense, and a kidney transplant was needed. According to human rights activists, despite the pressure behind bars, serious health problems, and a pardon, Vasil never admitted his guilt.

The oncologically ill political prisoner Pavel Kuchynski was also pardoned. This was reported by human rights activist Aliaksandr Kaputski on his Facebook page.

"Good news came to me from Maladziečna: the oncologically ill political prisoner Pavel Kuchynski was released. However, as his friend reports, the man was taken from the prison hospital to the city hospital in a not very satisfactory condition - with pneumonia, to put it mildly.

The political prisoner from Maladziečna has stage 4 Hodgkin's lymphoma. Despite his cancer, he was kept in prison for more than two years. In June last year, he was sentenced to five years in prison, but the sentence was reduced by only three months on appeal. At the same time, the court did not consider replacing the sentence with a non-custodial one. In August, Viasna's lawyers, concerned about Pavel's health, prepared and sent an appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Also, on August 21, it became known about the release of 31-year-old Yauhen Chumila. In May 2022, the Homeĺ Regional Court found him guilty of insulting a representative of the government, Lukashenka, a judge and inciting hatered. Yauhen was sentenced to imprisonment, but the term is unknown to human rights defenders. Chumila served his term in penal colony No. 17.

On the evening of August 27, the ONT showed footage of the release of three more men: Aleh Zykun, Ruslan Krasau, and Aliaksandr Haluza.

Aleh Zykun, a urologist from Brest, was sentenced for allegedly revealing personal data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs officers (Part 3 of Article 203-1 of the Criminal Code). In January this year, he was sentenced to one and a half years in prison. The political prisoner was serving his sentence in Babruisk penal colony No. 2.

Ruslan Krasau was sentenced to three years' imprisonment under Part 2 of Article 368 (insulting Lukashenko) and Part 2 of Article 367 (slandering Lukashenko) of the Criminal Code. He was sent to Navapolatsk penal colony No. 1.

Aliaksandr Haluza was found guilty of participating in the protests in Homieĺ (Article 342 of the Criminal Code) and inciting other social hatred (Article 130 of the Criminal Code). He was sentenced to imprisonment for an unknown term. He was released from penal colony No. 1.

Recall that on July 2, Aliaksandr Lukashenka signed the Law On Amnesty in Connection with the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belarus from Nazi invaders. It, like previous similar laws, does not grant amnesty for persons "involved in extremist and terrorist activities." Nevertheless, several political prisoners were released.

Viasna human rights defenders know for certain about 18 political prisoners who were released on July 3. Among them are four women and 14 men, including Ryhor Kastusiou, a cancer patient who was sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony.

More than 15 political prisoners were amnestied and pardoned, among them Ryhor Kastusiou

Human rights defenders do not publish the names of other released prisoners for their safety.

The article is getting updated.