Nineteen Nobel Prize winners have issued a formal appeal urging President Donald Trump to continue pressing Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to release more than 1,300 political prisoners. The letter comes after President Trump held a private conversation with Lukashenko and thanked him for the release of 16 detainees, urging further progress.
The Nobel laureates praised Trump’s involvement and called the release of prisoners essential to national reconciliation and human rights.
The letter was signed by a cross-section of Nobel laureates, including former Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, literature laureates Svetlana Alexievich and Herta Müller, and 16 other laureates in chemistry, physics, medicine, and economics. They urged the United States to take a leading role in holding Lukashenko’s regime accountable for politically motivated arrests stemming from Belarus’s 2020 election crackdown.
The appeal follows an earlier request from Belarusian opposition figure Dmitry Bolkunets, who directly contacted President Trump and proposed nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize if he intervened in the crisis. Shortly after, President Trump reportedly spoke to Lukashenko and acknowledged the release of 16 individuals. According to sources, Trump encouraged the Belarusian leader to continue releasing prisoners and restore political freedoms.
The Belarusian government has rejected the claim that it holds political prisoners, despite human rights groups documenting over 1,300 individuals jailed under “extremism” charges. Many of the arrests followed widespread protests in 2020 after Lukashenko claimed victory in a disputed presidential election. Western governments and international observers have widely condemned the election as fraudulent.
While Belarus has released hundreds of prisoners since mid-2024, the remaining detainees include journalists, opposition leaders, clergy, and pro-democracy activists. The Nobel laureates emphasized that their appeal was not only for individual release but also for broader reform and an end to repression.
The letter stands as a high-profile endorsement of President Trump’s diplomatic engagement on the issue, highlighting his capacity to leverage global influence in advancing human rights abroad. The laureates’ support adds further international legitimacy to ongoing pressure for accountability in Belarus.
