Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s office stated that repression in Belarus is systemic and that the situation continues to worsen each year.
The office responded to statistics on political persecution in Belarus from January to December 2025, compiled by the human rights initiative Dissidentby.
Since the beginning of the year, at least 1,267 people have faced criminal prosecution, including at least 438 who were detained.
During the same period, 405 people were released:
24 under so-called pardons (pro-government channels claim 114);
54 were released and forcibly transferred from Belarus to Lithuania;
the rest completed their sentences.
“The information presented is critically important: it allows an adequate assessment of what is happening and prevents Lukashenka’s regime from misleading people with statements about a ‘decrease in the level of repression’. The numbers speak for themselves: for 405 people released, there were 438 new detentions. And these are only the cases that could be recorded, since today it is becoming increasingly difficult for human rights defenders to obtain reliable information about political persecution.
Repression continues to be systemic and persistent. There are no real grounds to believe that Lukashenka’s regime has softened its repression against dissenting Belarusians,” said Leanid Marozau, Tsikhanouskaya’s legal adviser.