Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree pardoning 22 people, including twenty political prisoners, “on the occasion of the upcoming New Year,” the presidency reported in a statement on Tuesday. Among those pardoned were 15 women and seven men, he said, and twenty were convicted “of crimes of an extremist nature,” the term used for opponents of the president, who has been in power since 1994.
The announcement comes after US President Donald Trump encouraged Belarus to release political prisoners in return for the lifting or easing of Washington’s sanctions against this Moscow ally. In December, more than a hundred prisoners were released and immediately transferred to Ukraine and Lithuania and some later to Poland. Among those released at the time were two opposition activists, Maria Kolesnikova and Viktor Babariko, as well as activist Ales Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, who told DW that he denounced “the post-Stalin system” in Belarus.
Still more than a thousand political prisoners
Lukashenko, 71, began releasing political prisoners in mid-2024. His government has suppressed several protest movements. In the most important year, in 2020 and 2021, tens of thousands of Belarusians demonstrated against his re-election, which was considered fraudulent. The UN then confirmed human rights violations in the country.
The presidential pardon was granted for “humanitarian reasons and in the interests of the families,” according to the presidential office, which did not name the beneficiaries. According to the Belarusian human rights NGO Viasna, there are still more than a thousand political prisoners in the country, including historical opponent Mikola Statkevich, who was released in September but returned to prison because he refused to leave the country.
LGC (AFP, EFE)
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