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{As the bus traveled into the neighboring country, Mikola Dziadok, recently released after half a decade of hardship behind bars in Belarus, shouted: “God bless America.”

{It was an unlikely cry from a committed anarchist and reporter who had spent almost half of his mature years behind bars for resisting Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.

“I felt immense joy. At that moment, I admired the entire American administration. Just for that brief period, naturally,” he remarked with a grin in a Vilnius cafe, his hair freshly cut from prison.

Dziadok, 37, was among over fifty detainees freed and deported to exile in neighboring Lithuania in recent weeks – one of the largest such pardons in Belarus’s post-Soviet history, and the recent maneuver by Lukashenko, the calculating ruler who has ruled Belarus for decades and strong supporter of Russia's president, in his effort to improve relations with the Trump administration.

Releases Come with Limitations

{But the detainee liberation, which followed earlier ones, including that of the dissident figure a prominent activist in the summer, has come with certain conditions. And Lukashenko’s prisons remain overcrowded, with 1,168 political detainees still behind bars, according to the human rights group a monitoring body – a figure that includes its founder, the internationally recognized activist a human rights defender.

{Through a series of diplomatic overtures, Lukashenko has guided Belarus out of years of western isolation that followed his repressive measures at home and backing of the conflict in Ukraine. The US move to lift initial restrictions in response to the prisoner release, along with Trump’s hint of a potential encounter with the Belarusian president, marked a tangible victory for a ruler long treated as a pariah in the international community.

{But critics now say the government is using political prisoners as bargaining chips – exchanging their freedom for global compromises while continuing repression at home.

Understanding the Compromise

{While welcoming Trump’s efforts, several of those released said they were fully conscious of the exchange.

“The key point is not to replace the freeing of the country [from Lukashenko] with the freeing of political prisoners,” said a fellow activist, a middle-aged dissident from the opposition group freed in the identical arrangement.

{In an discussion in the Lithuanian capital, he emphasized that the Belarusian authorities had no plan of easing their crackdown on dissent. “Several dozen individuals were freed, but then about 50 new people were imprisoned. Why is this happening? We are freed today, and then the US will negotiate over the next group,” he gestured.

{The over a thousand political detainees also include Maria Kolesnikova, the musician turned opposition leader who rejected exile by destroying her documents at the frontier. Observers say freeing them all at once would deprive the leader of bargaining power.

Wave of Crackdown Since the disputed election

{The repression that populated the prisons started during the widely disputed national vote of 2020, when hundreds of thousands of Belarusians protested to call for the leader's resignation.

The two activists were swept up in that wave of arrests, alongside reporters, activists and ordinary citizens accused of “extremism” for a like, a contribution or a critical comment on the internet.

{On a infrequent trip by international journalists to the capital, a news outlet recently attended the trial of Ihar Ilyash, detained in October 2024.

The spouse, fellow reporter a media professional, is already serving an lengthy prison term for “betrayal of state” after reporting on the mass demonstrations. Remaining still inside a glass cage, Ilyash was sentenced to four years on accusations of radicalism for writings critical of Lukashenko.

Harsh Incarceration Reality

Former detainees say they need no imagination to envision his fate: extended periods of seclusion and inhuman conditions in what many call a detention network more brutal than Russia’s.

“The nation serves as a laboratory for oppression. It begins locally … then Putin does it a few years later,” said Dziadok. He described gruelling conditions inside Belarus’s prisons, where officers had created their own disturbing terms for torture.

“One method is called ‘disco’ – when they strike you with a electrical device while you are cuffed,” he said. “Another term, ‘quick charge’ is a full-power shock. And the ‘lawyer’ is when guards beat you with clubs. You say, ‘I want a lawyer’. They respond, ‘this is your advocate’.”

Those who endured detention said the suffering was as much psychological as physical. “One cannot to fully comprehend it unless you have been through it,” said Sparysh, nervously turning a writing instrument in his hands as he spoke. During the discussion, he stopped, seeming too unwell to proceed before declaring he would.

Sparysh remembered how political inmates were routinely thrown into solitary confinement – tiny solitary punishment cells – for minor infractions such as an unbuttoned shirt or unpolished shoes.

Much of the cruelty, however, was outsourced. A practice based on historical methods set dangerous inmates against political detainees. “Ordinary criminals are employed to bully detainees,” Dziadok said.

The method is also applied to isolate them, ex-detainees said. Ordinary inmates were ordered not to speak to political prisoners, and those who disobeyed risked immediate penalty. “It’s surreal … picture being in a barracks with dozens of individuals and not one speaks to you,” said the activist.

Healthcare Failures and Loss of Life

Prisoners also face medical neglect. “Medical care is withheld until you collapse,” he said of a detention facility in the country's west, where he spent most of his sentence.

He added that the message from the guards was unmistakable: “Increased mortality here, the improved the situation in the country will be.”

He recounted: “In my jail alone, four prisoners died. Two from illnesses that could have been prevented. One hanged himself. And one was beaten to death by another prisoner.”

Included was the elderly creative a dissident artist, a illustrator who once deposited a wheelbarrow of waste outside the president’s office. “I was sitting in a nearby cell, and heard how it occurred,” Dziadok said of Pushkin, who died in recent years as a consequence of sickness.

{Some of the more disturbing reports from those recently released recount how inmates with symbolic body art were singled out – forced to remove them personally or restrained while guards did it for them.

Lukashenko says Belarus treats inmates “normally”, adding that “prison is not a resort”.

{Life in Exile|Adjusting to Life Outside

The two activists are now adjusting to life abroad. Their national documents were taken by the government as part of the release, leaving them undocumented.

Staying politically relevant from outside the country, they concede, may prove difficult.

Some individuals, leaving the country was never an option. When the bus came to pick up the released detainees from the frontier, an individual was absent.

Mikalai Statkevich, 69, a long-time dissident and ex-military leader repeatedly jailed for challenging