Catholic Journalist in Belarus Released After 5 Years in Prison

Ihar Losik — a young journalist, father, and Catholic who had been imprisoned under harsh conditions since 2020 for reporting on the Belarusian regime for a U.S.-funded news outlet — has been freed along with dozens of other political prisoners from Belarus.

Losik, 33, is married and has a 6-year-old daughter who was a baby when he was imprisoned and has not seen her father since his arrest.

Losik was a freelance contributor to Radio Svoboda, the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a U.S.-funded news agency that promotes democracy, human rights and free speech, mainly in European nations where freedom of the press is restricted.

As a strong Catholic, Losik wrote an impassioned letter to the late Pope Francis in 2021, pleading for the Pontiff to use his voice to advocate for those unjustly detained in Belarus.

Following recent negotiations with the U.S., Belarus freed a total of 52 political prisoners on Sept. 11. President Donald Trump had personally appealed to authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — to release the detainees in exchange for sanctions relief.

The U.S. delegation that negotiated the prisoners’ release brought them to safety in Lithuania, Reuters reported. Losik was among those freed, along with numerous other journalists and human rights advocates.

According to Deniz Yuksel, advocacy manager for RFE/RL, Losik has reunited with his younger brother Mikita in Lithuania. It’s not clear whether he has yet reunited with the rest of his family.

“We are immensely grateful to President Trump for securing [Losik’s] release from wrongful detention by Belarusian authorities,” said Stephen Capus, RFE/RL president and CEO, in a Sept. 11 statement to the Register.

“We also thank Secretary Rubio, Deputy Special Envoy John Coale, the Lithuanian government, and the press freedom community for their strong support of RFE/RL’s imprisoned journalists.”

“Ihar suffered horribly because he was a journalist working for RFE/RL. This phase of his excruciating and wholly unfair ordeal, which stretched beyond five years, is finally over,” Capus said.

Losik was first arrested in June 2020 ahead of a highly disputed Belarusian presidential election. Authorities later handed Losik a 15-year sentence, with the charges brought against him including incitement of hatred, “organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order,” and “preparation for participation in riots.” Losik reportedly endured lengthy periods of isolation and severe physical and psychological pressures while in prison.

During this time Losik’s wife Daria was sentenced in Oct. 2022 to a two-year imprisonment for speaking out against Losik’s detention, but was released in July 2024 as part of a mass amnesty. Ihar’s younger brother Mikita was also recently detained by the government but managed to flee the country.

Earlier this year, Losik was paraded on Belarusian state TV for an interview — likely forced, his friends believe, and highly produced and edited in the style of a true-crime show — in which he was questioned about his activities with RFE/RL and seemed to express regret at having joined the opposition movement.

Belarus, a former Soviet Union nation, is ruled by Lukashenko, who won the country’s first democratic election in 1994 and has clung to power ever since, winning reelection each time under highly disputed circumstances. A self-described atheist, Lukashenko has used the law to tighten his grip against religious believers in the country in recent years.

Criticism of and public protest against Lukashenko’s regime came to a head after the Belarusian presidential election of August 2020, during which Lukashenko claimed to have won 80% of the vote. According to The Associated Press, at least 35,000 people were detained in Belarus during protests following the election, including many Catholics, who make up roughly 10% of the population.

Losik, now freed, is far from the first Catholic to be imprisoned under the Belarusian regime. Volha Zalatar, a Catholic mother of five, was detained in 2021 and even suffered torture for creating an unsanctioned — but entirely benign — online group chat. She was finally released in 2024.

Later that same year, in December, a Catholic priest, Father Henrykh Akalatovich, was sentenced in Belarus to 11 years in prison for “high treason,” having been accused of spying on behalf of Poland and the Vatican.

Jonah McKeown Jonah McKeown is a Register staff writer. He previously was a staff writer and podcast producer for Catholic News Agency. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has worked as a writer, as a producer for public radio, and as a videographer. He is based in St. Louis.