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# Vawkavysk chat case: the last political prisoners walk free
- URL: https://blog.zolak.lt/vawkavysk-chat-case-the-last-political-prisoners-walk-free/
- Published: 2026-10-18T07:52:58.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-06T11:22:47.000Z
- Description: The last three people jailed for a neighbourhood Telegram chat in Vawkavysk are free. What the case was, and why it is not quite over.
- Author: ZOLAK
- Tags: Belarus, #auto

All nine people convicted in the Vawkavysk chat case in Belarus are now free. The last three, convicted for taking part in a local Telegram chat, walked out of prison on 3 October 2026 after serving their full sentences. The other six had already been released in March 2026, in the large release of 250 political prisoners in March.

## What the Vawkavysk chat case was

In autumn 2024 the Lukashenka regime went after neighbourhood and courtyard chats, the local Telegram groups where people in Belarusian towns talk about their street, their block and the news. On 29 October 2024 the KGB declared a coalition of nine such chats, including the Vawkavysk chat known as "Free Wolves", an "extremist formation", and claimed that their members were organising to seize power.

Nine residents of Vawkavysk, a town in the Hrodna region, six women and three men, were tried at the Hrodna Regional Court under Article 361-1, part 3 of the Criminal Code: participation in an extremist formation. In late October 2025 they were sentenced to between two and a half and two years and nine months in prison, and each was fined 800 base units.

## Who is free now

According to Nasha Niva, citing the Viasna human rights centre's database, six of the nine were released on 20 March 2026, as part of the group of 250 political prisoners freed during John Caulfield's visit to Minsk. The last three completed their sentences and were released on 3 October 2026\. With that, nobody from this case is still behind bars.

## Not a happy ending yet

Freedom does not end the case. Hrodna.life reported on 15 October that the property of two of the women, a 1996 Volkswagen Passat and an old moped, was sold at auction to cover the fines.

The case is also a reminder of how little it took: chatting in a local group was enough. A coalition of human rights organisations said this month that the available data do not show the repression easing.

## How to help

Support for those who come out is as important as letters to those still inside. We collected practical ways to help, from letters to funds, in our guide on [how to help political prisoners in Belarus from abroad](https://blog.zolak.lt/political-prisoners-in-belarus-how-to-help-them-from-abroad/). Former prisoners who have reached Lithuania can get documents here, as we wrote about [earlier this month](https://blog.zolak.lt/freed-belarus-political-prisoners-get-documents-in-lithuania/).

## Sources

- [Nasha Niva: The last group of convicts in the Vawkavysk chat case released](https://nashaniva.com/en/406793?ref=blog.zolak.lt)
- [REFORM.news: human rights defenders on the intensity of repressions](https://reform.news/pravozashhitniki-dostupnye-dannye-ne-svidetelstvujut-o-snizhenii-intensivnosti-repressij?ref=blog.zolak.lt)
- [Hrodna.life: property of political prisoners from Vawkavysk sold at auction](https://hrodna.life/2026/10/15/prodazh-vaukavysk-2?ref=blog.zolak.lt)