"5 Years Later, RFE/RL Journalist Losik Still Behind Bars On Charges Seen As Trumped Up", 25 June 2025

With opposition voices rising just a couple of months before a presidential election in August 2020, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko began... rounding people up, especially those who had a voice or a platform.

On June 25, 2020, RFE/RL journalist Ihar Losik was one of them...

The 33-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December 2021 for "organizing mass riots, taking part in mass disorder, inciting social hatred," and several other charges that remain unclear. Losik, RFE/RL, and Western governments say the charges are politically motivated.

He was tried together with popular blogger and potential Lukashenko opponent, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, who appeared poised to mount a serious challenge to the president. Tsikhanouski was released from prison over the weekend along with 13 other prisoners -- including another former RFE/RL journalist, Ihar Karnei...

Losik has not been heard from in about two years aside from a being paraded before a camera on a Belarusian state TV propaganda program that accused jailed RFE/RL journalists of "trying to set Belarus on fire..."

International organizations, governments, and politicians from democratic countries -- including the US State Department, the UN Working Group, the European Parliament, the Helsinki Commission, and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress -- continue to call for Ihar Losik’s release.