{"id":178228,"date":"2026-03-05T17:48:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/178228\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"lukasenka-pardons-18-people-including-15-political-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/178228\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0141uka\u0161enka pardons 18 people, including 15 political prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>March 5,\u00a0<em>Pozirk.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka has, by his edict, granted pardon to 18 convicted individuals, including 15 people charged with extremism-related offences, according to the unofficial Telegram channel of the Belarusian ruler\u2019s press office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of those pardoned, 11, are women, <em>Pul Pervogo<\/em> said, adding that six of them have children, including children with disabilities who require constant medical rehabilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also among those pardoned are two married couples, a woman \u201cin the final stages of pregnancy\u201d and a person who broke the law when she was 16 years of age, the channel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka has pardoned political prisoners on a regular basis since July 2024. Since then, he has issued at least 13 edicts granting pardon to around 350 individuals imprisoned on political charges. On September 11 and December 13, 2025, he released 51 and 123 political prisoners, respectively, as a result of talks with US special envoy John Coale. \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s state security agencies bussed all the convicts out of Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of March 5, human rights defenders had identified at least 1,140 political prisoners, but the real number is considerably higher because of many undocumented cases. Despite the pardons and the releases of hundreds of people upon completion of their terms, the overall number of political prisoners in Belarus does not change considerably, averaging 1,150 for many successive months. This proves that the government continues to persecute \u0141uka\u0161enka&#8217;s opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belarus&#8217; security agencies label more and more opposition and civil society organizations as &#8220;extremist&#8221; groups, broadening the scale of political reprisals.<\/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\"> \u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/label>\n\n                <\/div>\n    <div class=\"insert-block__text\">\n                    <label class=\"insert-block__tag\">\u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/label>\n                <h3 class=\"insert-block__title\">Reprisals: dissident woman on non-custodial sentence dies<\/h3>\n        <div class=\"insert-block__descr\">March 5, Pozirk. Alena Pankova, convicted on protest-related charges, passed away. The woman, blacklisted as a \u201cperson involved in extremist activities\u201d last September, was likely serving a non-custodial sentence, Pozirk reported. Other cases of politically-motivated persecution documented in Belarus on &#8230;<\/div>\n        <a class=\"insert-block__btn-block\" href=\"\/en\/news\/178150\">\n            <button class=\"btn\">\n                <div class='btn__text'>Read the article<\/div>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 5,\u00a0Pozirk.\u00a0Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka has, by his edict, granted pardon to 18 convicted individuals, including 15 people charged with extremism-related offences, according to the unofficial Telegram channel of the Belarusian ruler\u2019s press office. Most of those pardoned, 11, are women, Pul Pervogo said, adding that six of them have children, including children with disabilities who require [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":93879,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-178228","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>\u0141uka\u0161enka pardons 18 people, including 15 political prisoners | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"March 5,\u00a0Pozirk.\u00a0Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka has, by his edict, granted pardon to 18 convicted individuals, including 15 people charged with extremism-related\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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