{"id":24019,"date":"2026-09-16T14:53:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=24019"},"modified":"2026-09-16T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T15:09:18","slug":"troe-lyudzej-slova-na-voli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2026\/09\/16\/troe-lyudzej-slova-na-voli.html","title":{"rendered":"Three Imprisoned Writers Are Free!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 16 September 2026, through the mediation of John Coale, the U.S. President\u2019s Special Envoy for Belarus, 25 political prisoners were released and forcibly taken to Lithuania. Among them were three Imprisoned Writers: Andrej Alaksandra\u016d, Dzmitryj Ha\u0142ava\u010d, and Zmicier Ko\u0142as.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \"\"
    \n<\/b>Andrej Alaksandra\u016d \u2013 journalist, media manager, poet, lyricist. Andrej Alaksandra\u016d created Belarusian Journal \u2013 an online publication aimed at intellectuals, where he planned to develop free and independent Belarusian thought, to bring together different ideas, views, and opinions, sometimes completely opposite. Learn more about Andrej Alaksandra\u016d<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. \"\"
    \n<\/b>Dzmitryj Ha\u0142ava\u010d \u2013 songwriter, vocalist, and member of Tor Band, a rock group from Raha\u010do\u016d. Tor Band is a Belarusian band, its music videos for the songs We are not a lesser nation (\u041c\u044b \u2013 \u043d\u0435 \u043d\u0430\u0440\u043e\u0434\u0435\u0446); Long Live (\u0416\u044b\u0432\u0435!); Who, if not you?! (\u041a\u0442\u043e, \u0435\u0441\u043b\u0438 \u043d\u0435 \u0442\u044b) have over a million views on YouTube.     Learn more about Dzmitryj Ha\u0142ava\u010d<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. \"\"
    \n<\/b>Zmicier Ko\u0142as \u2013 translator from French, publisher. He translated works by Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre into Belarusian. In 1998, he founded the Zmicier Ko\u0142as publishing house, specialising in Belarusian translations of world literature \u2014 poetry, prose, and drama. Notably, the Poets of the Planet<\/i> series, which featured translations of poetry from various countries, gained recognition, with more than 100 books published.     Learn more about Zmicier Ko\u0142as<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We are truly happy to see our friends and colleagues free, and we look forward to the release of all political prisoners! As of today, at least 19 Imprisoned Writers remain behind bars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On 16 September 2026, through the mediation of John Coale, the U.S. President\u2019s Special Envoy for Belarus, 25 political prisoners were released and forcibly taken to Lithuania. Among them were three Imprisoned Writers: Andrej Alaksandra\u016d, Dzmitryj Ha\u0142ava\u010d, and Zmicier Ko\u0142as. Andrej Alaksandra\u016d \u2013 journalist, media manager, poet, lyricist. Andrej Alaksandra\u016d created Belarusian Journal \u2013 an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":24028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-right"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24019"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24029,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24019\/revisions\/24029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}