The Homelskaya Vyasna human rights group in Belarus said on July 24 that Darya Losik, the wife of imprisoned RFE/RL journalist Ihar Losik, was released earlier this month as part of a mass amnesty.
According to the group, Darya Losik was one of five women imprisoned on politically motivated charges who were released from the prison in the southeastern city of Homel in early July.
Darya Losik was handed a two-year sentence in January 2023 on a charge of facilitating extremist activity that stemmed from her interview with the Poland-based Belsat news outlet, which has been declared an extremist group by Minsk.
Ihar Losik is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for charges that he, RFE/RL, and foreign governments have called politically motivated.
The 32-year-old was arrested in June 2020 and sentenced in December 2021 for "organizing mass riots, taking part in mass disorder, inciting social hatred," and several other charges that remain unclear.
He has maintained his innocence and calls all charges against him politically motivated.
SEE ALSO: What It's Like For Ihar Losik, Jailed In Belarus For 4 Years And Not Heard From In 16 MonthsIn October 2023, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Belarus violated international human rights law by imprisoning Losik, concluding that his arrest and detention were "based solely on his journalistic activity and his exercise of the freedoms of expression and of association."
The U.S.-based rights group Freedom Now said at the time that the conclusion was made in response to a legal petition it filed along with the international law firm Dechert LLP.
The U.S. State Department, U.S. Helsinki Commission, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, and several U.S. and EU politicians have called several times for Losik's immediate release.
Losik's parents said in February that the last letter they received from their son, who was placed in cell-type premises where letters, parcels from relatives, and visits are banned, was on February 20, 2023.
Losik is one of three RFE/RL journalists -- the other two are Andrey Kuznechyk and Vladyslav Yesypenko -- currently imprisoned on charges related to their work. Rights groups and RFE/RL have called repeatedly for the release of all three, saying they have been wrongly detained.
Kuznechyk, a web editor for RFE/RL's Belarus Service, was sentenced in June 2022 to six years in prison following a trial that lasted no more than a few hours. He was convicted of "creating or participating in an extremist organization."
Yesypenko, a dual Ukrainian-Russian citizen who contributed to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, was sentenced in February 2022 to six years in prison by a Russian judge in occupied Crimea after a closed-door trial. He was convicted of "possession and transport of explosives," a charge he steadfastly denies.
RFE/RL's Alsu Kurmasheva was released in a prisoner swap with Russia on August 1.