(23 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vilnius, Lithuania - 22 June 2025
1. Belarus' opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya waiting as her husband, Belarusian opposition figure, Siarhei Tsikhanouski arrives at news briefing after being released from prison
2. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Siarhei Tsikhanouski, released Belarus opposition figure:
"We came in and my wife said to my daughter, ‘Your dad has arrived’. At first, she couldn’t understand, and then she rushed in — she was crying, I was crying for a very long time. My son too! My son was told in advance that dad would come. He's older. And my daughter said, 'I couldn't believe that you would come back'. These are emotions that cannot be described."
3. Tsikhanouski turning around
4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Siarhei Tsikhanouski, released Belarus opposition figure:
"There were skin diseases, and everyone had kidney problems from the cold and no one really understood what was happening. Blood came out of my mouth, from my nose. Sometimes I had convulsion, but it was all because of the cold, that terrible cold when you sit in those punishment cells."
5. Tsikhanouski speaking
6. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Siarhei Tsikhanouski, released Belarus opposition figure:
"They (the Belarusian authorities) want Trump to at least, a little bit, somewhere, meet them halfway. They are ready to release them all. All of them! If Trump now gives a green light to release everyone and lift some sanctions, it will happen 100%."
7. Tsikhanouski holding up a fist, the symbol of Belarus' opposition
STORYLINE:
Siarhei Tsikhanouski is almost unrecognizable.
Belarus' key opposition figure, imprisoned in 2020 and unexpectedly released on Saturday, once weighed 135 kilograms (298 pounds) at 1.92 meters (nearly 6’4”) tall, but now is at just 79 kilos (174 pounds).
On Saturday, Tsikhanouski was freed alongside 13 other prisoners and brought to Vilnius, the capital of neighboring Lithuania, where he was reunited with his wife, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and their children.
Tsikhanouski said guards removed him from a KGB pretrial detention center, put a black bag over his head, and handcuffed him before transporting him in a minibus. He and other prisoners had no idea where they were going.
Tsikhanouski’s children — his daughter, aged 9, and 15-year-old son — didn’t recognize him when they were reunited.
“We came in and my wife said to my daughter, ‘Your dad has arrived,’” he said, crying. “At first she couldn’t understand, and then she rushed in — she was crying, I was crying ... for a very long time. My son too! These are emotions that cannot be described.”
Speaking to The Associated Press the day after, Tsikhanouski tries to smile and joke, but struggles to hold back heavy sighs recalling what he endured behind bars.
He was held in complete isolation, denied medical care, and given barely enough food.
Tsikhanouski was freed just hours after Belarusian author... [truncated]
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Video at Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muUraToUq5Q