On 19 March 2026, the Belarusian authorities released 250 political prisoners following negotiations with the United States aimed at lifting economic sanctions. Of these, fifteen were exiled to Lithuania and 235 remained in Belarus. Among those released and sent into exile were journalist, writer and poet Kaciaryna Andrejeva (Bachvałava) and blogger Eduard Palčys, as well as prominent human rights defenders Nasta Loika, Marfa Rabkova and Valiantsin Stefanovich. Writer, editor and political scientist Valeryja Kaściuhova was also freed and remained in Belarus.  

However, nearly nine hundred individuals are still imprisoned on politically motivated grounds. One of them is editor, political scientist and trade union activist Vacłau˘ Areška, who is detained in a medium-security penal colony in Ivacevičy, southwestern Belarus. 

Born on 18 January 1955, Areška graduated from the Belarusian State Academy of Arts with a major in theatre studies. He taught at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts and translated works of the Belarusian Baroque from the Old Polish language. His texts were published in several magazines including Arche, Spadchyna and pARTisan.

Editor of the bulletin of the Belarusian Radio-Electronic Industry Workers’ Union (REP), he was arrested on 19 April 2022, together with several independent trade union leaders. Twelve days earlier, REP had been declared ‘extremist’ by the authorities, who banned its activities. Areška was accused of ‘incitement for actions aimed at harming the national security of Belarus’, ‘creation of an extremist group or participation in it’ and ‘inciting social enmity’. 

Areška was found guilty on 5 January 2023 and sentenced to eight years in a penal colony. He was added to the country’s list of ‘extremists’ on 5 May 2023. According to former prisoner Alaksandr Mancevič, who was pardoned and exiled to Lithuania in September last year, Areška’s eyesight has deteriorated in detention and he is denied medical care: ‘During the day, he asks: “Is there sun in the sky today?” The most terrible thing is that at night he must feel his way to the toilet in the dark. He falls, injures himself, and bleeds.’

Dźmitryj Hałavač, songwriter, singer and member of the popular Belarusian rock group Tor Band, also remains behind bars. He was targeted for his songs, which became anthems of the mass protests that followed the fraudulent presidential election of 2020, generating millions of views on YouTube. His song We Are Not a Little People includes the lyrics: ‘We are not cattle, nor a herd of cowards,/we are a living people, we are Belarusians!/With faith in our hearts, we stand as one,/the banner of freedom above our heads!’

Hałavač was arrested on 28 October 2022 alongside his bandmates Jau˘hien Burło and Andrej Jaremčyk. They were transferred to pretrial detention in Homel, southeastern Belarus, in January 2023. While they were in prison, the Belarusian authorities labelled Tor Band ‘extremist’ and subsequently banned it. All three members of the group were accused of ‘inciting enmity or discord’, ‘creation of an extremist group or participation in it’, ‘discrediting the Republic of Belarus’ and ‘insulting the President of the Republic of Belarus’. On 31 October 2023, a court in Homel found them guilty and sentenced Hałavač to nine years in a penal colony, Burło to eight years and Jaremčyk to seven and a half years. 

These cases exemplify the ongoing repression of critical voices in Belarus. On 27 February 2026, PEN Belarus, founded in 1989, was designated an ‘extremist formation’ by the State Security Committee. The designation occurred eleven days after its social media accounts and website had been labelled ‘extremist materials’. Distributing or storing PEN’s materials can result in fines or short-term detention, while alleged involvement, support or facilitation of an ‘extremist formation’ carries prison terms ranging from five to seven years. PEN Belarus was dissolved by the Supreme Court on 9 August 2021 amid a fierce crackdown on dissent and subsequently relocated to Poland.

Belarusians are routinely charged under Belarus’s expanding ‘extremism’ laws, which are used to silence writers, journalists and activists as well as dissent of any kind. PEN and other human rights groups consider prison conditions in Belarus to constitute torture and ill treatment. The prison authorities systematically confiscate and destroy the literary manuscripts and letters of those detained on politically motivated grounds. These actions are clearly aimed at depriving authors of the opportunity to bear witness to their time in prison while erasing evidence and a person’s right to memory. 

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski (LR, May 2023), founder and chairman of the Viasna Human Rights Centre, reported that on the day of his release, the authorities took all his manuscripts and the few letters that had reached him in detention. Among the confiscated materials were two draft memoirs. Maksim Znak (LR, July 2024), the electoral campaign lawyer for opposition presidential candidates Viktar Babaryka and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, reported that his literary works, poems, translations and song lyrics were also seized. PEN Belarus considers these actions to be a form of cultural and psychological violence.

Readers might like to write to the Rt Hon Yvette Cooper and Nicholas Collier, urging them to raise the cases of Vacłau˘ Areška and Dźmitryj Hałavač and to call for their immediate release. Appeals to be addressed to:

The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper
Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH
Email: fcdo.correspondence@fcdo.gov.uk

Nicholas Collier, Deputy Head of Mission
British Embassy
37 Karl Marx Street
Minsk 220030, Belarus
Email: ukin.belarus@fcdo.gov.uk