VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Belarus forcibly deported political prisoners released in a U.S.-led deal, opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Friday.

Belarus freed 52 political prisoners Thursday as part of a deal brokered by the United States, which lifted some sanctions on the country’s national airline. The deal is the latest step toward a possible rapprochement between Washington and Minsk, a close ally of Russia that has faced Western isolation for years.

“Of course, we are so happy to see people free, but let’s be honest, what happened yesterday wasn’t real freedom. It was forced deportation,” Tsikhanouskaya said at a news conference Friday. She said that her team would work with partners in the U.S. to stop the practice for future releases.

About half of those released were approaching the end of their prison terms, said Tsikhanouskaya’s senior adviser Franak Viachorka.

“People were counting the days and months until their release, and suddenly they are deported, separated from their families, they have no passports, and they cannot return,” he said.

Fifty-one of the freed prisoners crossed into Lithuania, Anatol Lyabedzka, of Tsikhanouskaya’s team, told The Associated Press.

At a press conference in Vilnius, many alleged they were tortured, that they were deprived of medical care and contact with lawyers and relatives, and that other prisoners were encouraged to abuse and humiliate them. They thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for their release.

Trade union leader Aliaksandr Yarashuk, 74, who was sentenced to four years in prison, said that the authorities had “created a torture factory for political prisoners.”

“I once almost died of cold in a punishment cell; I thought I would not survive the night,” he said.

Blogger Mikalai Dzjadok spent a year of his five-year sentence in solitary confinement, where he says authorities deprived him of medical care and visits with lawyers and relatives.

“If people from the civilized world saw what a punishment cell is, they would think they were in the Middle Ages,” Dzjadok said. “The world simply cannot imagine the scale of what is happening in Belarus, the human rights violations, the abuse, violence of all kinds: psychological, physical, sexual.”

One of the released prisoners, veteran opposition politician Mikalai Statkevich, refused to cross into Lithuania and tried to return to Belarus, but was blocked by border guards, Anatol Lyabedzka said.

Statkevich remained between the two countries’ borders for a while before Belarusian security operatives took him in the direction of the Belarusian border crossing, Lyabedzka said. His whereabouts are currently unknown, Tsikhanouskaya said.

The politician’s refusal to leave Belarus echoes a similar choice by Maria Kolesnikova, a key leader in the mass protests that rocked Belarus in 2020. She became a symbol of Belarusian resistance after the authorities tried to deport her in September 2020. Driven to the Ukrainian border, she briefly broke away from security forces, tore up her passport, and walked back into Belarus. She was convicted a year later on charges including conspiracy to seize power and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

“Everyone who is released has the right to choose either to stay or to leave,” Tsikhanouskaya said Friday, in reference to Statkevich’s case.

Among those released Thursday were Ihar Losik, a journalist for the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as well other journalists and bloggers, party and union leaders, and 14 foreigners.

The freed prisoners had their passports confiscated and were given temporary A4-size papers by Belarus’ security services rather than full-fledged identity documents, Tsikhanouskaya said.

Some 1,159 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus, according to the country’s Viasna Human Rights Center.