In a good news / bad news week, a joint U.S.-Lithuanian effort brought about the release of 52 political hostages from several different countries being held in Belarusian prisons. As I happily reported three days ago, one of them was on my list of known hostages, Belarusian journalist Ihar Losik, whose name is now crossed out below. Welcome back to freedom, Ihar.

But Russia and Belarus are not the only countries holding innocent people hostage. In Azerbaijan last week, seven of the people on my list, who had all appealed their prison sentences, heard their appeals denied by the Baku Court of Serious Crimes.

Farid Mehralizada and six other journalists, whom I had nicknamed “The Azerbaijan 7,” had been sentenced on June 20th of this year to terms ranging from seven and a half to nine years. All had appealed; and — to no one’s surprise — all of their sentences were upheld.

When first detained on May 30, 2024, Mehralizada — a journalist working for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty — said that security agents jumped him, placed a hood over his head, and whispered into his ear, “You talk too much.” [RFE/RL, September 9, 2025.]

“Smuggling” was just an excuse for his nine-year sentence.

And so the injustice continues, with thousands of individuals, many of them foreigners, being held as living pawns in a political game of chess playing out among international adversaries. Their fates are being decided in secret negotiations held in far-flung capitals around the world . . . which means, at least, that they are not forgotten.

*. *. *

And yet, again, here are the ones I know of:

Immigrant Detainees in Russia:

Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Prisoners of War:

The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12

Endangered Exiles:

Mikita Losik
Yulia Navalnaya
Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents

Political Prisoners:

In Azerbaijan:

The “Azerbaijan 7”:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

In Belarus:

Ales Bialiatski
Andrei Chapiuk
Marya Kalesnikava
Uladzimir Labkovich
Ihar Losik
Marfa Rabkova
Valiantsin Stafanovic
Yuras Zyankovich

In Russia:

David Barnes
Gordon Black
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Timur Kishukov
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland

*. *. *

As always, we wish you strength, courage and patience . . . and a swift return home.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/14/25