{"id":589761,"date":"2026-10-15T19:02:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T16:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=589761"},"modified":"2026-10-15T20:12:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T17:12:54","slug":"tsikhanouskaya-meets-released-political-prisoners-in-lithuania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/tsikhanouskaya-meets-released-political-prisoners-in-lithuania","title":{"rendered":"Tsikhanouskaya Meets Released Political Prisoners in Lithuania"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><b>Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya<\/b> met in Lithuania with former political prisoners who were released on September 16 and forcibly deported from Belarus. The meeting was also attended by Vilnius office director <b>Dzianis Kuchynski<\/b>, volunteers and mentors helping the former prisoners adapt to life in Lithuania. The meeting was held in partnership with Volnyja.<\/p>\n<p>Participants discussed the difficulties people face after their release, access to medical, psychological and social assistance, and opportunities for mutual support. Tsikhanouskaya&#8217;s office <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/tsikhanouskaya\/9881\">noted<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/political-prisoners-released-in-september-receive-documents-in-lithuania\">the former political prisoners have already regularised their status in Lithuania<\/a> and received the necessary documents. It also noted that issues relating to medical and dental care are gradually being resolved.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8220;I understand how difficult things are for you right now: after everything you have been through, you have to rebuild your lives, deal with numerous everyday issues and get used to a new reality. I am very glad to see you gradually recovering, finding support and taking your first steps towards a new life.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>Being released under duress, when a person is taken out of the country without the right to stay while their relatives are left behind under pressure, is not what we consider genuine freedom. It is a continuation of repression in another form. We cannot assume that everything is over once the prison doors open. This is only the first step. True freedom will come when people can live at home with their families and no one is punished because of their past,&#8221;<\/em> Tsikhanouskaya said.<\/p>\n<p>It is worth recalling that, of the group of 25 people, 13 of those released remained in Lithuania, 10 went to Poland and two others travelled to another country.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 720px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-589761-1\" width=\"720\" height=\"1280\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/video_2026-10-15_18-58-30.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/video_2026-10-15_18-58-30.mp4\">https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/video_2026-10-15_18-58-30.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>Video: t.me\/tsikhanouskaya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met in Lithuania with former political prisoners who were released on September 16 and forcibly deported from Belarus. The meeting was also attended by Vilnius office director Dzianis Kuchynski, volunteers and mentors helping the former prisoners adapt to life in Lithuania. The meeting was held in partnership with Volnyja. Participants discussed the difficulties [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":517253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6ad1099ac3d42.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Tsikhanouskaya Meets Released Political Prisoners in Lithuania"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143090],"tags":[143174,143178,143172],"class_list":["post-589761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-belarusskie-politzakljuchennye","tag-politzakljuchennye","tag-svetlana-tihanovskaja"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589761","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\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":589763,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589761\/revisions\/589763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}