"Nothing to announce" — State Department responds on release of Belarusian prisoners

The visit of an American delegation to Minsk, which had been expected in June, will not take place. Normally, the release of political prisoners would follow such visits. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty learned from several human rights organizations that the visit will not happen.

Previously, the release of political prisoners was preceded by preparations and consultations that also involved human rights defenders. This is no longer the case.

In early June, the Reuters news agency published a comment from Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya stating that she knew the reason for the delay in releasing a new group of political prisoners. On June 10, John Cole responded negatively to a question from journalist Dzmitry Hurnevich on the social network X, asking whether the process of releasing Belarusian political prisoners had indeed been suspended. However, he declined to answer a question about his visit to Minsk.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty asked the U.S. State Department to comment on the Reuters report about the suspension of political prisoner releases, and also asked when John Cole would visit Minsk. The State Department's press secretary replied that the department "has nothing to announce at this time."

According to calculations by the human rights center "Viasna," 869 political prisoners currently remain behind bars. Human rights defenders consider at least 170 people to be particularly vulnerable due to age, health condition, or harsh conditions of detention. The human rights initiative "Dissidents" counts 939 people as political prisoners.