Belarus Releases 123 Prisoners Including Opposition Leaders After U.S. Lifts Sanctions

Reuters

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya welcomes released prisoner Ales Bialatski as he arrives at the U.S. embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has freed 123 prisoners, including Nobel peace prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava, after the U.S. lifted sanctions on Belarusian potash.

The announcement came after two days of talks with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy the latest diplomatic push since the Trump administration started talks with the Belarusian leader.

The prisoner release on Saturday, the largest since talks began, is part of a larger rapprochement the Lukashenko regime has been attempting with the west. 

The announcement of the release, which included top opposition figures and human rights campaigners, was met with fanfare. Bialiatski, who co-won the 2022 Nobel peace prize, is a human rights champion who advocated on behalf of political prisoners before being jailed himself in July 2021.

Also released were Kalesnikava, one of a trio of women who led 2020 protests against Lukashenko, as well as Viktar Babaryka, arrested in 2020 while trying to run in opposition to Lukashenko in a presidential election.

Kalesnikava’s sister, Tatsiana Khomich, said that her sister was grateful to the U.S. for its role in facilitating her release.

“She told me she is very happy to be freed, that she is thankful to the USA and Trump for their efforts in leading the process, and to all countries involved,” Khomich told Reuters.

Relatives of the prisoners gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, where it is expected some of them will be taken from Belarus. Ukrainian authorities said that 114 civilians, including Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens, were transferred to Ukraine.

President Trump’s Belarus envoy John Coale told reporters in Minsk that the U.S. would be lifting sanctions on potash, “as per the instructions of President Trump”.

The U.S. and EU placed sanctions on Belarus after the government cracked down on popular protests following a contested election in 2020, which included the mass detention and torture of political opponents.

More sanctions were imposed in 2022 after Belarus allowed Russia to use its territory for its invasion of Ukraine.

Belarusian opposition figures thanked President Trump for his efforts and said that the prisoner release was evidence of the effectiveness of the sanctions regime on the autocratic government. They called for EU sanctions to stay in place, which exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said were critical to “enabling democratic transition and ensuring accountability”.

Lukashenko has denied holding political prisoners, instead saying the people in his prisons were “bandits” and opponents of the state. Belarusian human rights group Viasna, which is banned in the country, said 1,227 political prisoners remain in jail.

Sources: The Guardian, Reuters



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