US Facilitates Release Of 123 Political Prisoners In Belarus

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA: Belarus on Saturday released 123 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, following high-level talks with a United States envoy, in a move that signals a tentative thaw in relations between Minsk and Washington.

The releases came after meetings between Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and US Special Envoy for Belarus John Cole, as the Belarusian government seeks to ease international isolation and secure relief from Western sanctions.

Shortly after the announcement, the United States said it would begin lifting some economic sanctions imposed on the country.

Bialiatski, one of Belarus’ most prominent human rights activists, spent decades documenting political repression and campaigning for prisoners of conscience.

He was arrested in 2021 during a sweeping crackdown on mass protests that followed a disputed presidential election, which the opposition said Lukashenko had rigged to extend his rule.

In April 2023, Bialiatski was convicted on charges of financial crimes and smuggling and sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony, accusations he consistently denied.

After his release, he told opposition outlet Belsat from Lithuania that the struggle for freedom in Belarus was far from over.

“Our fight continues,” he said. “The Nobel Prize was an acknowledgement of our activity and our aspirations that have not yet been fulfilled.”

Bialiatski remained in Belarus despite the risk of arrest, even as many activists fled abroad. His wife, Natallia Pinchuk, has previously said he stayed out of principle, refusing to leave colleagues who had been detained.

Also freed was Maria Kolesnikova, a leading figure in the 2020 protest movement that nearly unseated Lukashenko.

A trained orchestra musician, Kolesnikova became a symbol of defiance after tearing up her passport to prevent security agents from deporting her. She was later sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges of extremism and plotting to seize power.

Speaking after her release, Kolesnikova thanked the United States and the Belarusian authorities for facilitating the talks, according to her sister, Tatiana Khomich.

In a video message after arriving in Ukraine, Kolesnikova said she remained focused on those still behind bars.

“I’m thinking of those who are not yet free,” she said. “I’m very much looking forward to the moment when we can all be free.”

The decision to free the detainees came on the second day of negotiations between Lukashenko and the US envoy. Cole said Washington would lift sanctions on Belarus’ potash industry, a key source of state revenue, and suggested further relief could follow.

“As relations between the two countries normalize, more sanctions will be lifted,” Cole said.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for more than three decades, has faced international condemnation for suppressing dissent and jailing thousands of critics in the country of about nine million people.

While Saturday’s releases mark one of the largest such moves in years, rights groups say many political prisoners remain in custody.

(Culled from DW)