Some 31 Nobel Prize laureates have called for the immediate release of all political prisoners in Belarus in an appeal addressed to world leaders that was published on Monday.
The appeal, signed by 31 laureates, including the Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015, and former Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, the joint winner of the 2021 Peace Prize, urged world leaders to take “urgent and comprehensive measures” to secure the release of those behind bars.
“Currently, over 1,400 political prisoners are held in Belarusian prisons, including presidential candidates, teachers, doctors, workers, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski,” the appeal read, adding that the international community could not “remain indifferent when thousands of innocent people are suffering from political repression”.
The appeal follows a report in The New York Times last week of a possible deal between Washington and Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, under which Lukashenko would release “a slew of political prisoners”, including high-profile ones, in exchange for the US easing sanctions on Belarusian banks and exports of potash fertiliser, of which Belarus is a key producer.
On 12 February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the release of “an American citizen unjustly detained in Belarus” as well as two political prisoners, adding that Washington remained “committed” to freeing the country’s political prisoners.
The release followed a “below-the-radar visit” to Minsk by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Smith, the NYT reported, which Smith called a “huge win and a response to President Trump’s peace through strength agenda”.
While the released American citizen has not been named, Franak Viacorka, an advisor to exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said the two released Belarusians were Andrey Kuznechyk, a journalist with the Belarus service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Alena Maushuk, who was imprisoned for six years for taking part in an anti-government protest in 2020.
Lukashenko pardoned at least 200 political prisoners last year, few of whom have been named, and indicated in an interview with the BBC in October that he would “consider” pardoning one of Belarus’s most high-profile prisoners, opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava, if she made a formal request for clemency.