Aliaksandr FIADUTA

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Writer, political analyst, and literary critic Aliaksandr Fiaduta was freed and forced into exile on 13 December 2025 alongside several other Belarusian writers and journalists, following negotiations between Belarus and the United States aimed at lifting economic sanctions. Fiaduta was first sent to Ukraine, before being transferred to Poland. Prior to his release, he was serving a 10-year prison term, imposed in September 2022 and upheld in November 2022.  

Aliaksandr Fiaduta was convicted of ‘conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means’ under Article 357.1 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, in relation to an alleged US-planned ‘coup’ and ‘assassination attempt’ against President Aliaksandr Lukašenka and his family. News that he was detained in the Russian Federation emerged on 13 April 2021, and he was subsequently returned to Belarus by the Belarusian KGB. Fiaduta suffers from serious heart problems (see Case Lists 2022-2025). Fiaduta previously received a suspended two-year prison term in May 2011. 

Once an active member of Lukašenka’s campaign team and later the President’s press secretary, Aliaksandr Fiaduta, born on 3 November 1964, resigned from this post in the mid-1990s and joined the opposition. He became a vocal opponent of the current government and notably worked as a journalist for Russian and Belarusian independent newspapers (Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Imia, and Narodnaja Volia). In December 2010, Fiaduta was arrested while working on an opposition campaign, and wrote American Poems while in pre-trial detention. American Poems won the 2012 Aleś Adamovič Award issued by PEN Belarus.