Recent political prisoner releases in Belarus give the illusion of improved human rights in the country, where repression remains systematic, a UN expert told AFP.
At the encouragement of US President Donald Trump, hundreds of political prisoners have been released in return for the lifting of sanctions on President Alexander Lukashenko’s administration.
In power since 1994, Lukashenko has waged a relentless crackdown on dissent, particularly since a 2020 protest movement in the European country of more than nine million people.
According to Nils Muiznieks, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus, more than 150 people classified as political prisoners were released in 2025, with another 250 released in March.
However, Belarus nonetheless “probably has more political prisoners per capita than any other country in the world”, he told AFP in Geneva, where he presented his latest report to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.
Belarus was given the chance to respond to the report but did not attend the session.
Reports from various non-governmental organisations and UN bodies indicate there are 852 known political prisoners in Belarus.
“The real number is almost certainly much higher because the legislation is so broad,” said Muiznieks. “How many more, we do not know.”
The Latvian political scientist said the Belarusian authorities were covering their tracks more than before, notably by stopping publishing information on certain judicial proceedings, and by intimidating the families of detainees.
He said the crackdown now targeted new groups, notably cultural figures, volunteers from the Belarusian Hajun investigative project — which monitors Russian troop movements during Moscow’s war in Ukraine — publishers, religious activists and LGBTQ people.
The expert also condemned tightened restrictions on freedom of expression. Authorities have designated a growing number of groups, media outlets and social media accounts as “extremist”, thereby exposing to potential prosecution anyone who views or shares their content.
Special rapporteurs are independent experts mandated by the Human Rights Council to report their findings. They do not speak for the United Nations itself.
– ‘Innovator’ in transnational repression –
TV journalist Katsiaryna Andreyeva was arrested in 2020 after covering protests in the capital Minsk and spent five years in prison before being released in March.
“I was forcibly deported from Belarus without my passport or any documents,” she told AFP.
Now living in exile in Poland, she is fighting for the release of her husband — also a journalist — who was jailed two years ago.
Andreyeva said she thought Belarusian authorities had deliberately kept him imprisoned to keep her under pressure.
“I am still trying to rebuild my life, but I feel very lonely because my family remains in Belarus and my husband is enduring terrible conditions,” she said.
Muiznieks said Belarus had become “a big innovator and a big leader in transnational repression”.
He said Minsk denies consular services to exiled citizens, revokes their passports, holds trials in absentia, issues Interpol notices, confiscates their assets, and pressures relatives who remain in Belarus.
The expert said people often hesitate to come forward, “because of fear of reprisals” against their families.
His report also denounced the growing marginalisation of the Belarusian language, the promotion of a “Russian-Soviet” interpretation of national history, and discrimination against those who defend Belarusian cultural identity.
Muiznieks called for the release of all political prisoners, and for a comprehensive overhaul of extremism and terrorism laws.
He said the laws permit the criminalisation of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.
Muiznieks also urged the Belarusian authorities to grant independent observers access to prisons.
“I’ve done human rights monitoring in 49 countries and I must say I’ve never encountered a country where we get such systematic reports of torture and ill-treatment in places of detention,” he said.
The special rapporteur said the total lack of prosecutions of those responsible suggested that such practices were tolerated — or even encouraged — by the authorities.
“Everybody thinks that this is government policy,” he said.
ag/rjm/tw