Andrei Aliaksandrau is a Belarusian journalist and editor who spent more than five and a half years in prison in Belarus before being released on September 16, 2026, one of 25 prisoners freed after months of U.S. diplomatic efforts. He was immediately deported to Lithuania, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ).
Aliaksandrau, the founder and editor of the news website Belaruski Zhurnal and former deputy director of BelaPAN independent news agency, was arrested in January 2021 and handed a 14-year sentence after he was convicted of treason and other crimes.
Two other journalists -Dzmitry Navazhylau, and Kyril Pazniak - were also freed at the same time and deported to Lithuania.
The releases followed a meeting between Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and John Coale, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Belarus who has been charged with securing the release of hundreds of people including human rights campaigners, political activists, journalists and lawyers.
Aliaksandrau’s wife, Iryna Zlobina, who was also detained in 2021, was also freed on September 16, 2026.
Aliaksandrau told the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) that he had lost 30 kilograms in detention and was “very happy that these almost six years are over.” He added that he hoped the prisoner releases would continue, saying that political prisoners in Belarus were “very much waiting for this process to continue.”
Case history
Aliaksandrau, who is also a former staff member of the London-based nonprofit press freedom organization Index on Censorship, was arrested by Belarusian authorities on January 12, 2021 and initially charged with violating public order for allegedly paying the court fines of journalists and activists arrested covering protests against Lukashenko’s contested August 2020 reelection. In June 2021, Aliaksandrau was charged with treason.
On November 18, 2021, Radio Svaboda, the Belarusian-language service of RFE/RL, reported that Aliaksandrau and other former and current BelaPAN employees, including Navazhylau and director and chief editor Iryna Leushyna, had been charged with “creating an extremist group.”
On September 1, 2022, Aliaksandrau and his then girlfriend Zlobina, who was detained along with him on charges of treason and violating public order, got married behind bars.
On October 6, 2022, a court sentenced Aliaksandrau to 14 years in prison and fined him 32,000 Belarusian rubles (US$12,550) on charges of high treason, creating an extremist group, large-scale tax evasion, and “organizing or participating in gross violations of public order.”
The court also handed down sentences of nine years to Zlobina, six years to Navazhylau, and four years to Leushyna.
On January 6, 2023, the Belarusian Supreme Court upheld the sentences of Aliaksandrau, Zlobina, Navazhylau, and Leushyna.
According to BAJ, Leushyna was released in December 2024 after completing her sentence.