Lukashenko pardoned another 18 unnamed political prisoners

Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree pardoning 18 convicts, including 15 people convicted of “crimes of an extremist nature,” the press service of the head of Belarus reported .

The majority of those pardoned are women: 11 people. One of them is in her final term of pregnancy, six more have children, including those with disabilities.

It is alleged that all those pardoned “submitted a petition for clemency, admitted guilt, repented of their actions, and also promised to lead a law-abiding lifestyle.”

It is still unknown who among the Belarusian political prisoners has now been released.

Since 2020, 605 political prisoners have been released under pardon in Belarus, despite the fact that 4,499 people received such status during the same time, the Viasna human rights center reports .

In February 2026, Lukashenko released Nikolai Statkevich, an oppositionist and former presidential candidate, from prison.

Statkevich was among 52 political prisoners pardoned by Lukashenko in September 2025. The pardon meant immediate deportation to Lithuania, but the politician refused to leave Belarus. The media circulated a frame from a CCTV camera where Statkevich was sitting in no man's land. And then he returned on foot to Belarus, where he was again sent to a colony. Later he suffered a stroke in the colony.

The released Statkevich was no longer deported from Belarus in February, and he returned home to his wife.