Belarusian activist and journalist Andrey Hnyot (aka Andrew Gnyot) has been freed from house arrest in Serbia and allowed to leave for an unspecified European country, his lawyers told RFE/RL on October 31.
"Today, after one year of desperate struggle -- seven months and six days in prison and five months under house arrest -- Belarusian journalist, director, and political activist Andrey Hnyot was evacuated from Serbia to the European Union," Maryya Kolesava-Hudzilina told RFE/RL.
The Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
Hnyot’s Belgrade-based lawyer, Filip Sofijanic, confirmed to RFE/RL that the Higher Court in Belgrade lifted Hnyot’s detention on October 31 after the one-year legal deadline expired.
"They could have imposed another measure, for instance, requiring him to report to the police, but they did not do so," said Sofijanic said.
Hnyot told RFE/RL he was “immensely grateful” to his lawyers and the rest of his legal team and to Belarusian opposition politician Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her international team.
He also thanked self-exiled Belarusian opposition politician Paval Latushka for helping to monitor and publicize his case. In addition he expressed gratitude to civic and human rights organizations, media outlets, journalists, friends, loved ones, athletes, colleagues in the film industry, and “the thousands upon thousands of caring people who fought for my life."
"My story is like a Hollywood movie,” he told RFE/RL. “I have so much to tell! I just need a little time to get used to the freedom and safety I have been without for so long. In the coming days, I’ll be inviting everyone to a press conference. Long live Belarus!"
Hnyot’s release brings an end to an ordeal that began when he was arrested at Belgrade's airport in late October 2023 on an Interpol warrant issued by Belarus. The arrest warrant accused Hnyot of tax evasion, a charge he denies. He was transferred from a Belgrade prison to house arrest in June.
Since last month, when the Belgrade Court of Appeals overturned the decision to extradite him to Belarus, he had been awaiting Serbia's final decision on his extradition.
The European Parliament last month passed a resolution on political prisoners in Belarus that called on Serbia not to extradite Hnyot, who feared being tortured in a Belarusian prison if he had been returned to his native country.
Hnyot said then that the accusations against him were part of the Belarusian regime’s “horrific repression against political dissidents, journalists, and activists.”
He is one of hundreds of thousands of Belarusian citizens who took part in mass demonstrations in 2020 challenging the victory claimed by authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka that gave him a sixth consecutive term.
There are more than 1,500 political prisoners in Belarusian prisons. Among them are journalists, human rights activists, and politicians.
Western countries do not recognize the results of those elections, and the European Union imposed sanctions on Minsk over the repression of participants in the demonstrations