The government of Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko released a large number of political prisoners on Saturday after meeting with the US envoy.
The most prominent of the released prisoners was Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialyatsky, who campaigned for decades on behalf of people jailed for their political beliefs.
This step has been taken when Russia’s close ally Minsk is trying to improve relations with America.
Following the announcement of the prisoner’s release, the US said some economic sanctions against Belarus would be lifted.
In the three decades of his harsh rule, Lukashenko has effectively crushed all dissent in the country of nine million people.
Bialiatsky and Maria Kalensnikova were the most prominent prisoners released.
Bialiatsky was arrested in 2021 during mass protests against Lukashenko, who was declared the winner of the presidential election the opposition accused him of stealing last year.
Although other dissidents fled, Bialiatsky decided to stay. “He knew all the risks, he was very well aware,” his wife, Natalia Pinchuk, told Reuters on the day he received the Nobel Prize in October 2022 with the Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties.
“There were suggestions that he should leave,” he said. “His colleagues were arrested. And he said in principle that he was responsible for them and given the dire situation he was in, he couldn’t leave. How could he leave when they were locked up?”
In April 2023, Bialiatsky was found guilty of financial crimes and trafficking and sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony. He denied the allegations.
Belarusian street protest leader Maria Kolesnikova – an orchestra musician by profession – was among those released on Saturday. Kolesnikova was a leading figure in the 2020 protests that nearly ousted Lukashenko, famously tearing up her passport as the KGB tried to deport her.
“He thanked the United States for President [Donald] “It’s Trump’s efforts and the Belarusian side’s contribution to organizing these talks,” Kolesnikova’s sister Tatiana Khomich said after the siblings spoke by phone.
Many more to follow…
Edited by Carl Sexton