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UN experts on Monday warned that the expulsion of political prisoners from Belarus and subsequent invalidation of their passports may amount to transnational repression, increased statelessness, and human rights violations.
Their concerns stem from the December 2025 release of 123 prisoners to Ukraine and Lithuania following negotiations with the United States. Most of these individuals were detained for peacefully exercising their rights. Among those released are activists within the Belarusian rights group Viasna, primary political opposition figures, and an editor of the largest news outlet in Belarus.
Upon removal to Lithuania and Ukraine, eight prisoners discovered that their Belarusian passports were declared invalid without any notice or explanation, despite remaining valid at the time of their forcible expulsion. The experts stated that the arbitrary invalidation of documents severely affects these individuals’ essential rights, such as freedom of movement, legal status, family life, and access to employment, healthcare, and banking services.
The December release was not the first or last group of political prisoners to be released in Belarus with no protections in place to safeguard their basic human rights. 250 arbitrarily detained individuals were released in March of this year, 52 were released in September 2025, and several were released in 2023, including Leanid Sudalenka, the former head of Human Rights Centre Viasna.
In their report UN experts expressed their concerns over Sudalenka, who left Belarus due to continuing persecution and is now facing additional criminal investigations in absentia under their “special proceedings” framework for “extremist” offenses related to human rights activities and public expression.
Experts warned that the special proceedings framework is incompatible with “fundamental fair trial guarantees, including the rights to effective notification, access to case materials, legal representation, meaningful appeal and effective remedy.”
The concerns add to a reported pattern of transnational repression fueled by politically motivated imprisonment, forcible expulsion, and statelessness under 32-year incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, Europe’s longest serving head of state.
Despite the perpetual release of prisoners, the state of human rights in Belarus has not improved due to political oppression, restriction of the freedom of expression, and abuse of the justice system. According to a report by Amnesty International, about 200 individuals were facing criminal investigations for peacefully exercising their rights in the capital alone in 2025. This was a renewed effort by authorities to prosecute protestors from the “rigged” 2020 election before the statute of limitations elapsed.
Recommendations to improve essential rights and reduce statelessness were addressed and accepted by Belarus in its 2025 Universal Periodic Review, but significant changes have not been made. The UN experts called on the country to act on these recommendations, stating that “Belarus must urgently cease using its vague and overly broad anti-extremism legislation to punish the legitimate exercise of protected rights.”
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Their concerns stem from the December 2025 release of 123 prisoners to Ukraine and Lithuania following negotiations with the United States. Most of these individuals were detained for peacefully exercising their rights. Among those released are activists within the Belarusian rights group Viasna, primary political opposition figures, and an editor of the largest news outlet in Belarus.
Upon removal to Lithuania and Ukraine, eight prisoners discovered that their Belarusian passports were declared invalid without any notice or explanation, despite remaining valid at the time of their forcible expulsion. The experts stated that the arbitrary invalidation of documents severely affects these individuals’ essential rights, such as freedom of movement, legal status, family life, and access to employment, healthcare, and banking services.
The December release was not the first or last group of political prisoners to be released in Belarus with no protections in place to safeguard their basic human rights. 250 arbitrarily detained individuals were released in March of this year, 52 were released in September 2025, and several were released in 2023, including Leanid Sudalenka, the former head of Human Rights Centre Viasna.
In their report UN experts expressed their concerns over Sudalenka, who left Belarus due to continuing persecution and is now facing additional criminal investigations in absentia under their “special proceedings” framework for “extremist” offenses related to human rights activities and public expression.
Experts warned that the special proceedings framework is incompatible with “fundamental fair trial guarantees, including the rights to effective notification, access to case materials, legal representation, meaningful appeal and effective remedy.”
The concerns add to a reported pattern of transnational repression fueled by politically motivated imprisonment, forcible expulsion, and statelessness under 32-year incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, Europe’s longest serving head of state.
Despite the perpetual release of prisoners, the state of human rights in Belarus has not improved due to political oppression, restriction of the freedom of expression, and abuse of the justice system. According to a report by Amnesty International, about 200 individuals were facing criminal investigations for peacefully exercising their rights in the capital alone in 2025. This was a renewed effort by authorities to prosecute protestors from the “rigged” 2020 election before the statute of limitations elapsed.
Recommendations to improve essential rights and reduce statelessness were addressed and accepted by Belarus in its 2025 Universal Periodic Review, but significant changes have not been made. The UN experts called on the country to act on these recommendations, stating that “Belarus must urgently cease using its vague and overly broad anti-extremism legislation to punish the legitimate exercise of protected rights.”
The post UN experts warn Belarus political prisoners face continuing repression due to passport invalidation appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.