WARSAW: Belarusian exile Asya watched from the sidelines in central Warsaw as a crowd greeted and applauded Sergei Tikhanovsky, the Belarus opposition figure who was unexpectedly released, barely recognizable after five years in prison.

A popular blogger, Tikhanovsky, 46, was jailed in 2020, weeks before he was due to stand in presidential elections against Belarus’s long-time leader, Alexander Lukashenko.

His arrest was the opening salvo in a sweeping crackdown that escalated after Lukashenko claimed victory over Svetlana Tikhanovskaya – Tikhanovsky’s wife, who ran in his place – in a ballot widely decried by critics and rights groups as rigged.

Asya was among several hundred fellow Belarusians, living in exile in neighboring Poland, celebrating his surprise release under pressure from the United States.

But her mind was with others still incarcerated.

“I am happy for those who are freed, but with each release I always look for the names of my friends,” she said.

There are 1,169 political prisoners in Belarus, according to the Viasna rights group.

The sight of Tikhanovsky – who lost almost half his weight and appeared to have drastically aged behind bars – has given even more urgency to securing their release, Asya said.

“Honestly, regime change is needed. But for me, the priority is for people to be freed and for them to be safe,” she said.

Having been held incommunicado since March 2023, many had long feared for how Tikhanovsky was being treated.

His emaciated appearance was still a shock.

“I cried all day when I saw him,” said Alexandra Khanevich, a 71-year-old activist who fled Belarus in the wake of the protests.

“My mother went through concentration camps... This is what I thought of.”

Tikhanovskaya said the couple’s young daughter did not recognize him.

The bones on his face and fingers are visible, and the 46-year-old looks far older.

“Only when we heard his voice, we knew it was really him,” said Yulia Vlasenko, who had protested in 2020 against Lukashenko in the eastern city of Vitebsk.

Others said they knew him by his distinctive ears.

Tikhanovsky has broken down in tears several times when talking about his ordeal in prison, describing alleged torture and being held in solitary confinement.

Prison officials had attempted to “fatten him up” in the months before his release by giving him “meat, fats, butter,” he told a rally in Warsaw.

He believes there will be more releases.

Officers from the KGB state security service – which has retained the feared Soviet-era name – were touring prisons pressuring people to sign statements asking for pardons from Lukashenko, he said.

Many were hopeful his release could give a new energy to the mostly exiled Belarusian opposition movement.

Tikhanovsky, who has pledged not to get in the way of his wife, said he has “even more energy” than before he was jailed.

The couple are radically different in style.

Svetlana has spent five years touring Western capitals, meeting leaders in polished suits.

Sergei is known for his tongue-in-cheek colloquialisms, having famously called Lukashenko a “cockroach” in one YouTube broadcast.

“Svetlana is more of a diplomat... Sergei is like from the street,” said protester Alexandra Dobrovaya, giggling.

Vitaly Moisa, a 42-year-old in construction, said he hoped the pair would be a “double hit” for the regime, with the opposition boosted by Tikhanovsky’s “charisma.”

He drove more than six hours from southern Poland to see “hero” Tikhanovsky.

“It’s hard to imagine he was not broken by such conditions,” he said.

Many came to the rally with masks on, fearing retribution for their families back home if they were recognized attending the rally.

Ukrainian Oleg Abrashim – who has never been to Belarus – had come with a mission: to give Tikhanovsky a hand-written letter from his Belarusian girlfriend.

“She did not want to come as it will be full of the KGB and she has not got her parents out yet,” he told AFP.

Listening to Tikhanovsky, he was reminded of the style of someone back home he had voted for in 2019: Volodymyr Zelensky.

“I understand why they followed him,” Abrashim said.

From Ukraine’s Kharkiv, which has been pounded relentlessly by Belarus’s ally Russia since it invaded, he was inspired by the messages of hope.

“Belarus and Ukraine should be free,” he said, clutching the letter.