{"id":547985,"date":"2026-06-03T16:52:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=547985"},"modified":"2026-06-04T08:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T05:50:43","slug":"we-are-not-finished-trump-envoy-responds-to-tsikhanouskaya-s-remarks-about-800-political-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/we-are-not-finished-trump-envoy-responds-to-tsikhanouskaya-s-remarks-about-800-political-prisoners","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe Are Not Finished\u201d \u2014 Trump Envoy Responds to Tsikhanouskaya\u2019s Remarks About 800 Political Prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>US President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy <b>John Coale<\/b> has responded to remarks by <b>Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya<\/b> that, according to available information, around 800 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cWe are not finished. Keep hope alive!\u201d<\/i> he wrote on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/johnpcoale\/status\/2062158181158043734?s=20\">X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A video featuring the Belarusian democratic leader was <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GlushkoDenys\/status\/2059363902820073673\">posted<\/a> on social media by Apostrof editor-in-chief <b>Denys Hlushko<\/b>. In the recording, Tsikhanouskaya says that, according to known information, around 800 political prisoners are currently behind bars in Belarus, although the real number may be significantly higher because people continue to be systematically detained and not all cases are reported to human rights groups due to intimidation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are not finished. Keep hope alive! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PqPgIeSxTn\">https:\/\/t.co\/PqPgIeSxTn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; john coale (@johnpcoale) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/johnpcoale\/status\/2062158181158043734?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>She thanked US partners and Trump\u2019s special envoy for Belarus, <b>John Coale<\/b>, for efforts to secure the release of political prisoners and noted that around 500 people had already been freed, some of whom had been deported from Belarus. She expressed hope for further releases this year and said the Lukashenka regime views prisoner releases not as an act of humanity but as a political bargaining tool.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cFor Lukashenka, these releases are not an act of humanity. This is human trafficking. He wants to sell people at the highest possible price. And, of course, US sanctions are lifted in exchange for releasing people. But our European partners maintain a principled and very firm position of continuing pressure. We are very grateful to them for that. Because as long as repression continues, as long as systemic repression continues, as long as Belarusians cannot return home, and as long as the war against Ukraine continues, in which Lukashenka is an accomplice, European sanctions cannot be used to buy people\u2019s freedom. On the contrary, now is the time to increase pressure on the Lukashenka regime in order to force it to make concessions,\u201d<\/i> she said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_547901\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-547901\" style=\"width: 1195px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-547901 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1195\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10.jpg 1195w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10-1020x1024.jpg 1020w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10-768x771.jpg 768w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10-398x400.jpg 398w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10-797x800.jpg 797w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pic_10-120x120.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1195px) 100vw, 1195px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-547901\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot: x.com\/johnpcoale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy John Coale has responded to remarks by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya that, according to available information, around 800 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus. \u201cWe are not finished. Keep hope alive!\u201d he wrote on X. A video featuring the Belarusian democratic leader was posted on social media by Apostrof editor-in-chief [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":526951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6a211237d5c2d.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"\u201cWe Are Not Finished\u201d \u2014 Trump Envoy Responds to Tsikhanouskaya\u2019s Remarks About 800 Political Prisoners"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143090],"tags":[143174,143118,143178,143172],"class_list":["post-547985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-politics","tag-belarusskie-politzakljuchennye","tag-belarus","tag-politzakljuchennye","tag-svetlana-tihanovskaja"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}