New York, August 21, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Belarusian journalist Ksenia Lutskina, who has served nearly half of an eight-year sentence, following a presidential pardon.
Lutskina was among 30 political prisoners who were involved in “protest activities” and suffered from serious health issues and chronic conditions in jail who were pardoned by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on August 16. Lutskina’s father told CPJ that the journalist has been suffering from headaches caused by a growing brain tumor.
“We are relieved that journalist Ksenia Lutskina is free and can get the medical treatment she needs, but she shouldn’t have spent a second in jail,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Unless Lukashenko is too afraid of truthful reporting, he must now free all journalists languishing behind bars for doing nothing but their job.”
Lutskina said petitioning for a presidential pardon was “the most difficult thing I have written in my life.” She added, “I will finally be able to hug my son.”
Belarusian authorities first detained Lutskina in December 2020 and accused her of the “destabilization of the political, social, economic and informational situation in the country” by trying to start a new public television channel during the mass protests over the August 2020 contested presidential elections, according to the Belarusian prosecutor general’s office.
Belarus is the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 28 journalists, including Lutskina, behind bars on December 1, 2023, when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census.