(OSV News) -- A Catholic Nobel Peace Prize winner who was unexpectedly freed from jail in Belarus has paid tribute to supporters who helped secure his release, while warning that over a thousand political prisoners still languish in his country's penal colonies.
"Psychologically, it still feels as if part of me is in prison -- I'm left with a sense of unreality," said Ales Bialiatski, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2022, while in detention, for helping "demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy."
"Although my faith is a personal matter, it constantly sustained me, giving me confidence that I'd be free someday when this harsh time of trial came to an end. I was supposed to stay in jail for another five years, yet now I'm free. This is truly a miracle from God."
The lay Catholic spoke with OSV News after being released Dec. 13 with 122 other political prisoners and deported to neighboring Lithuania by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.
He said he had been "threatened, intimidated and tormented" right up to being "taken to the border and thrown out," but was relieved he had kept his passport, enabling him to move freely abroad.
"Just a few days ago, I was sitting alongside people who'd been locked up for 10 or 20 years for murder and very serious crimes -- political prisoners like myself were under special surveillance and had to be constantly wary of provocations and punishments," Bialiatski, who founded a Belarusian Catholic Assembly and the country's first post-communist Catholic magazine, told OSV News.
"Coming here, where people are living freely, has been like beginning a warm, sunny day after being wrapped in a frozen shroud. I no longer need to be afraid, and it's been a huge happiness to be with my wife and family, whom I haven't seen for more than three years."
Bialiatski, 63, directed Belarus's Viasna Human Rights Center until its supreme court de-legalisation in 2003, and was given a 10-year penal colony sentence in March 2023 for "smuggling" and "financing of group actions grossly violating public order," in a move condemned by United Nations experts as a "targeted use of criminal persecution."
He was released -- blindfolded and without prior warning -- from Penal Colony No. 9 on Dec. 13, in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions on the potash sector, crucial for Belarus's economy.
In his interview, he said his home and possessions had been seized, and his family dispersed to different countries since his arrest, in what felt like an "unseen war between the Belarusian regime and its own population."
He added that there had been other church members in his prison and penal colony, particularly from western Belarus, but said Catholics had been unable to pray together or receive visits from priests.
"Whereas Orthodox clergy could come once a week, nothing similar was permitted for Catholics -- you had to keep your faith to yourself to avoid harming others," said Bialiatski, who also holds the Sakharov Freedom Prize and U.S. State Department Award, as well as prizes from the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly and several honorary citizenships. "Our own bishops are ministering in unclear conditions and must prioritize the church and its members in Belarus -- I had no information about their actions relating to political prisoners. But I'm deeply grateful for moves taken by the Vatican to improve the human rights situation."
Bialiatski's release follows the Nov. 20 freeing of Father Henrykh Akalatovich, an elderly parish rector from Valozyn, who began 11 years in a strict-regime penal colony in April for "high treason," as well as that of Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Andrzej Juchniewicz, chairman of Belarus's Major Superiors, Delegates and Representatives of Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life, who was handed 13 years in April after a closed trial for alleged to "criminal offenses."
Both priests were freed following a Minsk visit by Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Eastern Churches, and a former nuncio to Belarus, and are currently at the Vatican, where they have not spoken publicly.
Bialiatski said he had heard about Cardinal Gugerotti's visit from Belarusian and Russian TV, the only information sources permitted in prison, and had been "pleased and moved" when the priests were freed.
"The then-nuncio visited me in prison a decade ago, and I knew he must have discussed political prisoners with Lukashenko," the Nobel laureate told OSV News.
"Though we don't know the details of his talks in Minsk, he couldn't have confined them to just these two priests. Although always spoken warmly, words from the Vatican can change things, and I'm certain these latest releases owe much to these recent conversations."
Catholics make up around a tenth of the 8.97 million inhabitants of Belarus, where Lukashenko began a seventh term as president, after 31 years in power, following claiming victory in January elections with 86.8 percent of votes.
Dozens of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant clergy have faced arrest since a previous ballot in 2020, which was followed by international sanctions and the flight of half-a-million citizens abroad.
Catholic parishes were required to re-register or face liquidation under a December 2023 freedom of conscience law, which prohibits religious activities deemed to infringe Belarus's "sovereignty, constitutional system and civil harmony."
At a Dec. 10 press conference, Belarus's Deputy Commissioner for Religious and National Affairs, Sergei Herasimenya, said the church now numbered 440 religious communities, suggesting the total had dropped sharply from the 500 registered in 2024.
Bialiatski said his first responsibility, as a Nobel laureate, would be to tackle the "dramatic problems" facing Eastern Europe as a result of the war in Ukraine, and to work for "human rights, peace and justice," rather than resuming activity as a Catholic organizer and translator of liturgical works.
"The Belarusian regime is freeing some political prisoners, while bringing in others, often for ridiculous reasons or no reasons at all -- there are still more than a thousand in incarceration, so the first priority must be to ensure this vast repression doesn't last," Bialiatski told OSV News.
"Belarus forms part of the Christian world and can never be erased from Europe's map. I'm thankful to everyone who, through words and deeds, acted to ease today's harsh and terrible conditions, but I now have many things to do myself."
The coordinator of Belarus's exiled ecumenical Christian Vision organization, Natallia Vasilevich, told OSV News other prominent Christians had been released alongside Bialiatski, including Pavel Seviarynets, co-founder of a Christian Democracy party, who received a seven-year prison sentence in May 2021 for "preparing mass riots," and literary scholar Aliaksandr Fiaduta, who was jailed for 10 years in September 2022 for "conspiracy to seize power."
"While the latest releases have been met with euphoria, joy and celebration, we must constantly remember that many other people remain in prison," she said.
In a Dec. 11 online report, Christian Vision said several prominent Catholics remained incarcerated in Belarus, including Father Grzegorz Gawel, a 27-year-old Carmelite from Krakow, Poland, who was detained Sept. 4 at Lepel, near Vitebsk, and Andrzej Poczobut, journalist and freedom activist who would receive the 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in the European Parliament Dec. 16.
Vasilevich added that the recent releases were "not evidence of any change in the general trend."
