Two prominent union leaders in Belarus were among 52 prisoners released on September 11. The two political prisoners were arrested in 2022 and 2023 on politically motivated charges for defending workers’ rights.
Both Aliaksandr Yarashuk, chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) and Hennadz Fiadynich, former chairman of the Trade Union of Radio and Electronics Industry Workers’ Union (REP), are now safe in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Their release highlights the vital role of unions in defending democracy, and the ongoing need to support rights defenders facing repression.
Imprisonment, Forced Labor
Yarashuk, 73, was taken to a pre-trial detention center in April 2022 after his home and workplace were searched. In December 2022, he was sentenced to four years in a penal colony where prisoners are housed in barracks and forced to perform labor.
Fiadynich, former leader of the REP, was sentenced in 2023 to nine years in prison.
At least 25 union leaders remain imprisoned on politically motivated charges in Belarus, where the authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has held power since 1994.
In August 2020, Lukashenko claimed a landslide election victory, sparking widespread claims of fraud and massive protests and strikes, often led by union members, many of them women. Lukashenko’s regime responded with ruthless repression, leading to deaths, injuries, more than 10,000 arrests and the dismantling of the independent Belarus union movement.
Reports say prison conditions include beatings, inadequate medical care, overcrowding and a lack of proper sanitation.
More than 70 union leaders have been imprisoned, including Sergey Antusevich, vice president of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, who was released earlier this year.
Before his imprisonment, Antusevic described how workers across the country took a stand against violence and injustice during the 2020 protests. Speaking with Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau, he shared his hope for a democratic Belarus.
“My inspiration is the people, people who stand and fight.”