Maksim ZNAK
Image Credit:Каардынацыйная Рада па арганізацыі працэсу пераадолення крызісу/WikkiCommons
Lawyer, academic, and writer Maksim Znak 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. Znak was first sent to Ukraine, before being transferred to Poland. Prior to his release, he was held incommunicado serving a 10-year sentence in a medium-security penal colony imposed on spurious national security grounds. Znak was the electoral campaign lawyer of opposition presidential candidates Viktar Babaryka and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and a member of the Coordination Council for the Transfer of Power, which called for the resignation of President Lukašenka following the fraudulent presidential election held in August 2020.
Maksim Znak was arrested on 9 September 2020. Tried behind closed doors alongside Maryia Kalesnikava, who headed Viktar Babaryka’s campaign team, on charges of ‘incitement of measures of a restrictive nature (sanctions) and other actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of Belarus’ using mass media and the internet (Article 361.3 of the Criminal Code), ‘conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means’ (Article 357.1) and ‘creation of an extremist group or participation in it’ (Article 361.1), they were both found guilty on 6 September 2021, with Znak receiving a 10-year sentence, and Kalesnikava 11 years in prison. In May 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for his immediate and unconditional release. Prior to his forced exile, Znak was last seen by his lawyer in February 2023 (see Case Lists 2023/2024-2025).
Maksim Znak, born on 4 September 1981, is a lawyer, professor at the Law Faculty of the Belarusian State University, poet, and lyricist. While detained, Znak wrote Зекамерон (The Zekameron: One hundred tales from behind bars and eyelashes, Vremja, Moscow, 2022), in which he poignantly details his new everyday life. He is the recipient of the 2025 Vaclav Havel Center’s Disturbing the Peace Award to a Courageous Writer at Risk.