Jailed Belarusian opposition politician Viktor Babariko, a prominent challenger to President Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 election, has sent a video message to his family in his first public appearance in more than two years.

The communication, reportedly addressed to his daughter, included photographs and a short video, published online by Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian journalist.

Babariko has been held incommunicado since April 2022, with no access to visits, phone calls, or letters, according to human rights group Viasna. He is one of at least nine political prisoners subjected to severe conditions, who prominently challenged Lukashenko hold on power in the 2020 presidential elections.

Human rights organisations report that 1,265 political prisoners remained incarcerated at the start of 2025, despite a series of pardons in 2024 that freed 227 detainees – widely seen as an election stunt by Lukashenko and an attempt to curry favour with the West as part of an effort to ease sanctions.

“I think a lot of Belarusians felt relief today because they were able to see him alive,” Ivan Kravtsov, a leading exiled opposition figure who coordinated Babariko’s 2020 presidential campaign, told Reuters.

A row has broken out amongst the opposition leaders in exile over how to deal with the fraught issue of facilitating the release of political prisoners. The senior leadership, led by Belarusian former presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, wants the EU to increase its sanctions on Minsk to cajole Minsk into releasing all the prisoners.

But following the success of the historic Russian prisoner swap completed on August 1, others want a “salami slicing” approach, where releases of individuals are traded for sanctions relief. Currently Tikhanovskaya has the upper hand, but the internal bickering amongst the opposition leaders on the Coordination Council is undermining the opposition’s image amongst its international supporters, say analysts.

The European Union approved its fifteenth sanctions package against Russia on December 15, incorporating new measures aimed at Belarus. However, some Belarusian opposition in exile are calling for sanctions to be eased.

Babariko had been on track to easily win the 2020 presidential election, collecting over 400,000 signatures on his petition needed to register as a candidate – quadruple the mandatory 100,000 required by law. Long queues formed on streets where Babariko’s team set up booths to collect the signatures in a rare public show of support for an opposition leader.

But Babariko was arrested in June 2020, two months before the contested election, and sentenced to 14 years in prison on trumped up corruption charges, which he denies. His campaign manager, Maria Kolesnikova, took over and joined Tikhanovskaya’s presidential campaign to become one of the best-known faces of the opposition. She too was arrested, and after the authorities failed to expel her from the country, she also has disappeared into a Belarusian prison, where she has been ever since. She was allowed a meeting with her father in November after more than 600 days in jail and reportedly her health has been failing.

The former head of the Belarusian branch of Russia’s Gazprom bank, Babariko was a successful businessman and well respected. He advocated a moderate platform that avoided the Ukrainian-style of integration with the EU, and promised to maintain good relations with Russia as a neutral country.

Lukashenko, threatened by a real challenge to his hold on office, wasn’t tolerating any competition, and threw Babariko, and other challengers, including Tikhanovskaya’s husband, Sergey, into jail. In power since 1994, Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in the August 2020 elections, sparking mass demonstrations that began the same day and went on for the rest of the year. All prominent opposition leaders were either jailed or forced into exile.

Babariko’s video message was shared on social media by opposition editor Roman Protasevich, who is another victim of the Lukashenko regime that arrested him by diverting a commercial Ryanair flight on its way to Latvia and arresting him when it landed in Minsk. Arrested in May 2021, he was sentenced to eight years for extremism but later pardoned and has since appeared on state TV praising Lukashenko, but also showing clear signs of torture.

Babariko’s reappearance comes ahead of the January 26 presidential election, which opposition figures have already dismissed as fraudulent.