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Fight comes to a close? For the last almost two years, President Donald Trump has been working to get the John…

Andrei and his wife Irina, following their release It is not often we share news with you that is so utterly joyous, but today marks one of those days. Our friend, former colleague and constant inspiration Andrei Aliaksandrau has been released from jail in Belarus. A journalist and political prisoner in President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s Belarus, Andrei’s stoicism and resilience epitomised the kind of democratic world so many Belarusians hope one day to build. We have always been proud to call Andrei a member of the Index family. For years we have campaigned and called for him to be let go, and while the news of his release alongside his wife Irina is welcome, it is a poignant reminder that so many in Belarus remain wrongfully detained. Index CEO Jemimah Steinfeld said: “It is hard to express the emotions of knowing our dear colleague Andrei is finally out of prison. After a long campaign – Andrei spent years in jail – it’s incredible to know he is at last free. Speaking on behalf of my colleagues, we are all overjoyed. “Andrei will never get back the time and it is hard to think of what he’s had to endure. Lukashenka’s Belarus remains rotten to the core, and Andrei’s release doesn’t change that. Many still languish in jail simply for asking for basic human rights and for democratic values. “Still, it provides comfort to think of him now reunited with his family, including his wife Irina who was also a political prisoner. Andrei is a lover of Scottish whisky and a Liverpool FC fan. I hope he can enjoy these and much more.” Detained in Correctional Colony No. 1, Andrei wrote this poem, which his colleagues at Index helped to translate from Belarusian to English. We’ll leave you with that: When you look out through the bars at the sky, It’s not bars you see but the sky overhead. Yesterday’s bread smells of mould and loss, but tomorrow’s smells like genuine bread.   You say: the sky is a trick of the light. But the bars are the trick of the light, I say! Because bars are a hashtag, just a habit, right? And this is the hashtag trending today.   Yet the sky cares nothing for hashtags at all, the sky has no thought for trends up ahead, it does not feel the ground where our feet fall, nor count the centuries and slices of bread.   The sky just draws clouds of cotton wool over time – this is all that goes on really. And the sky does not see any bars at all when it peers deep into the sky in me. READ MORE

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It is not often we share news with you that is so utterly joyous, but today marks one of those…

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