RFE/RL's Belarus Service spoke to women who had been imprisoned at the country's notorious Homel penal colony on politically motivated charges. Now free and living in exile, the former prisoners shared stories of enduring slave labor, rotten food, and psychological pressure. Rights groups estimate that more than 1,100 political prisoners remain behind bars in the country.
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Female ex-political prisoners from a Belarusian penal colony describe freezing cells, rotten food, psychological abuse, and forced labor. Now in exile, they recount conditions meant to break them, as over 150 women remain jailed on charges rights groups say are used to silence dissent in Belarus.
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Belarusian authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko has pardoned and released 31 Ukrainian citizens who had been held in Belarus, a move Minsk said was part of an agreement reached with US President Donald Trump.
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Lithuania’s Prime Minister has said it’s “a hybrid attack” – hundreds of weather balloons flying across the border from Belarus, causing airport chaos. But the incidents also point to a long-standing, large-scale smuggling network that allegedly has high-level links in Minsk.
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