Belarus releases US citizen who was jailed for years
[May 01, 2025]
By YURAS KARMANAU
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus on Wednesday released a U.S. citizen who
had been jailed on allegations of plotting to assassinate the country's
authoritarian leader, charges his supporters and the U.S. government
called bogus.
Youras Ziankovich, a lawyer who has dual Belarusian and U.S.
citizenship, was convicted on a number of charges, including plotting a
coup against Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, and given an
11-year sentence in September 2022. He then had six months added to his
sentence later that year.
In August 2024, a court in Belarus handed Ziankovich an additional
two-year sentence on charges of “malicious disobedience to the prison
administration,” bringing his overall prison term to 13 1/2 years.
The U.S. government on Wednesday identified the man as Youras Ziankovich
but his name has also been rendered as Yuras Zyankovich in different
news accounts.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who designated Ziankovich as
wrongfully detained in February, announced his release on Wednesday and
said he would return to the United States soon. Rubio acknowledged
“Lukashenko’s humanitarian gesture” and thanks the Lithuanians, calling
them “incredible allies” who have been “supportive of our efforts these
past few months to bring Americans home.”
Ziankovich was arrested in Russia in April 2021 together with Alexander
Feduta, who served as a spokesman for Lukashenko when he was first
elected in 1994. Feduta later joined the opposition.
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Russia’s Federal Security Service, the country’s main security
agency also known as the FSB, said at the time without offering any
evidence that Ziankovich and Feduta came to Moscow to meet with
opposition-minded Belarusian generals and were plotting a military
coup.
In 2020, Belarus was rocked by its largest-ever protests following
an election that gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office but was
condemned by the opposition and the West as fraudulent. In response
to the demonstrations, Lukashenko unleashed a harsh crackdown on
dissent. According to Viasna, Belarus’ top human rights group,
65,000 people have been arrested since the protests began and
hundreds of thousands have fled Belarus.
Pavel Sapelka, a rights advocate with Viasna, told The Associated
Press on Wednesday that Ziankovich has been “under constant and
harsh pressure from the authorities” behind bars and lost a lot of
weight in harsh prison conditions.
Since last year, Lukashenko pardoned about 250 political prisoners.
He also released one American from custody this past February.
Some 1,200 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus,
according to Viasna.
____
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to
this report.
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