{"id":128992,"date":"2025-03-07T13:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T10:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"three-regime-critics-pardoned-in-february","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/","title":{"rendered":"Three regime critics pardoned in February"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>March 7, <em>Pozirk<\/em>. <\/strong>Only three of 16 prisoners convicted on charges widely seen as politically motivated and released last month were pardoned, while 13 had served their terms in full, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the released is Hienad\u017a Drazdo\u016d, 65, an artist and former head of the Pahonia group at the Belarusian Union of Artists. He was arrested in August 2022 and given three years in prison on extremism-related charges that Belarusian authorities often use to persecute their opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, Minsk also released former <em>RFE\/RL<\/em> journalist Andrej Ku\u017anie\u010dyk, opposition activist Alena Ma\u016d\u0161uk and US citizen Nikolay Shugaev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 2020, authorities have released at least 1,450 regime critics who had served their terms in full, Viasna noted. Every month, several dozen are freed. However, this number includes those awaiting their transfers to serve restricted freedom sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On March 7, human rights defenders documented at least 1,219 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"insert-block\">\n\n    <div class=\"insert-block__img\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"354\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pozirk_color_blank_1128x752-354x236.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pozirk_color_blank_1128x752-354x236.jpg 354w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pozirk_color_blank_1128x752-734x490.jpg 734w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pozirk_color_blank_1128x752-178x118.jpg 178w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pozirk_color_blank_1128x752-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pozirk_color_blank_1128x752.jpg 1128w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/>                        <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> Politics<\/label>\n\n                <\/div>\n    <div class=\"insert-block__text\">\n                    <label class=\"insert-block__tag\">Politics<\/label>\n                <h3 class=\"insert-block__title\">Reprisals: Ukrainian, three others arrested in Viciebsk region<\/h3>\n        <div class=\"insert-block__descr\">March 7, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on March 6 as Belarusian authorities filed criminal charges against four people, one of them a Ukrainian national. The State Border Committee said they were accused of border &#8230;<\/div>\n        <a class=\"insert-block__btn-block\" href=\"\/en\/news\/128957\">\n            <button class=\"btn\">\n                <div class='btn__text'>Read<\/div>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 7, Pozirk. Only three of 16 prisoners convicted on charges widely seen as politically motivated and released last month were pardoned, while 13 had served their terms in full, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. One of the released is Hienad\u017a Drazdo\u016d, 65, an artist and former head of the Pahonia group at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":93879,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-128992","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three regime critics pardoned in February | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"March 7, Pozirk. Only three of 16 prisoners convicted on charges widely seen as politically motivated and released last month were pardoned, while 13 had\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three regime critics pardoned in February | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"March 7, Pozirk. Only three of 16 prisoners convicted on charges widely seen as politically motivated and released last month were pardoned, while 13 had\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/setka-1128-pixabay.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"752\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/\"},\"headline\":\"Three regime critics pardoned in February\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-07T10:12:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/\"},\"wordCount\":165,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/setka-1128-pixabay.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/\",\"name\":\"Three regime critics pardoned in February | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/128992\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/setka-1128-pixabay.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-07T10:12:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"March 7, Pozirk. 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