Twenty-Five Political Prisoners Released, Deported from Belarus

Source briefing · A concise briefing based on one linked source. It is intentionally shorter than a full FreedomWitness Evidence Engine analysis.

What the source reports

Click to expand Image TOR BAND musicians, former political prisoners, embrace their loved ones after arriving in Vilnius on September 16, 2026. © 2026 Human Rights Watch This week 25 former political prisoners arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania having been released from detention in Belarus.Their release was negotiated by the United States special envoy to Belarus John Coale with president Aliaksander Lukashenka.

In exchange, the US lifted sanctions on two Belarusian companies.Among those released are journalist Andrei Aleksandrau and activist Iryna Zlobina, who…

Evidence note: At this stage FreedomWitness is presenting what this source reports. This briefing does not independently prove every underlying claim and should be read together with the original material.

Source & verification

Primary source: Human Rights Watch News · September 17, 2026

Read the original source

FreedomWitness links to the original source so readers can inspect the underlying material and judge the context for themselves.