Journalist Katsiaryna Andreyeva released

Belaru­sian author­i­ties have released Bel­sat jour­nal­ist Kat­siary­na Andreye­va, who was sen­tenced to 8 years impris­on­ment. This occurred on March 19 fol­low­ing a vis­it to Min­sk by U.S. pres­i­den­tial envoy John Coale. A total of 250 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers were released on par­don that day, 15 of whom were trans­ferred out of Belarus to Lithua­nia. Kat­siary­na was among these 15.

Kat­siary­na Andreye­va in the first min­utes of her arrival in Vil­nius after her release from prison. April 19, 2026. Pho­to: BAJ

The polit­i­cal pris­on­ers were released fol­low­ing today’s meet­ing between an Amer­i­can del­e­ga­tion led by U.S. pres­i­den­tial envoy John Coale and offi­cial Min­sk.

Background

Bel­sat jour­nal­ists Kat­siary­na Andreye­va and Darya Chultso­va were detained on Novem­ber 15, 2020 while cov­er­ing a pub­lic memo­r­i­al for the killed pro­test­er Raman Ban­daren­ka in a live broad­cast.

On Feb­ru­ary 18, 2021, judge Natal­lia Buhuk of Minsk’s Frun­zen­s­ki Dis­trict Court found the jour­nal­ists guilty and sen­tenced them each to 2 years impris­on­ment.

This Belaru­sian journalist’s sto­ry became the basis for Mara Tamkovich’s film Under the Grey Sky, which was shown at numer­ous film fes­ti­vals across Europe and the world.

In July 2022, a sec­ond tri­al took place in which Kat­siary­na Andreye­va received a hor­rif­ic verdict—8 years in prison. This deci­sion was made by judge Aleh Kharosh­ka of the Homel Region­al Court. The pro­ceed­ings were held behind closed doors. The sub­stance of the charges remains unknown to this day.

Short­ly after the Supreme Court’s deci­sion, the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs of Belarus added the polit­i­cal pris­on­er jour­nal­ist to the list of per­sons involved in “extrem­ist activ­i­ties.”

“I didn’t per­son­al­ly inter­act with her, but I saw her there. She’s a strong per­son. They say she didn’t exact­ly shut down, but per­haps her behav­ior changed a bit, but over­all she didn’t break,” a released polit­i­cal pris­on­er Natal­lia Duli­na said about the jour­nal­ist.

On Octo­ber 22, 2024, Kat­siary­na Andreyeva’s hus­band Ihar Ilyash was detained. On Sep­tem­ber 16, 2025, Min­sk City Court judge Siarhei Katser sen­tenced Ihar Ilyash to 4 years impris­on­ment and imposed a fine of $1,240.