Leanid Marozau, legal adviser to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, held talks with Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets during his working visit to Ukraine. The sides discussed the possibility of releasing Belarusian and Ukrainian political prisoners from Belarusian prisons, Radio Svaboda reported.
“We wanted to start this conversation because the Ukrainian authorities must know that their citizens are there, in Belarus,” Marozau said on the nationwide Ukrainian telethon.
According to him, three lists have been prepared containing the names of Ukrainians convicted in Belarus on political grounds:
- from the overall list of 1,300 people recognized by human rights defenders as political prisoners;
- from among those convicted for protests against Russia’s war in Ukraine;
- from those convicted in the “Belarusian Hajun case.”
“If the Ukrainian side knows at least the names, it will be able to contact the relatives of political prisoners and ask how they can be helped. In some cases, we ourselves can help,” he added.
Marozau noted that the rapprochement between the U.S. administration and Alyaksandr Lukashenka can also be used to continue efforts to free political prisoners holding Ukrainian passports.
“If we think that only Belarusians are imprisoned in Belarusian prisons — no. There are also citizens of Sweden, the United Kingdom, Poland. Therefore, it is possible to talk to anyone in order to help these people, and we are doing that,” he said.
“This was the first such visit, all meetings (in Kyiv) were held in Belarusian and Ukrainian. The first meeting, in my view, was quite effective. My next visit with other experts is planned,” he said.
It should be recalled that Tsikhanouskaya and Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Vilnius on the evening of January 25. The sides discussed issues of bilateral relations and the international agenda. In particular, the talks covered Belarusian volunteers defending Ukraine, sanctions policy, a joint strategy with American and European partners, and holding Lukashenka accountable. It was proposed to appoint a special envoy on Belarus. Zelenskyy invited Tsikhanouskaya to visit Kyiv. Later, the Ukrainian president confirmed that he is selecting a candidate for the position of envoy who will deal with relations with Belarusian democratic forces.
