Human rights group: Political prisoners released in Belarus
Since the announcement of the release of seriously ill prisoners by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, according to human rights group Viasna, at least ten political prisoners have been released. None of these belong to the well-known figures whose release the West has demanded, Pavel Sapelko of the human rights organization Viasna told the AP news agency. According to Viasna, there are over 1400 political prisoners in Belarus, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski.
Lukashenko had promised this week to release seriously ill persons from prison who had been incarcerated in connection with mass protests nearly four years ago. "We had expected a comprehensive amnesty in which hundreds of people would be released, but we only see individual cases," Sapelko said. "Repression in the country continues," he added.
Lukashenko has suppressed opposition and independent media since his tenure began in 1994. Since the mass protests following the presidential election in 2020, he has further intensified his course. The election result, which gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office, was disputed by the opposition and western states. Many opposition representatives had to flee into exile, including former presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
The human rights group Viasna criticized that only individually sick political prisoners were being released, with none of the prominent figures demanded by the West being included. Despite the release of some prisoners, over 1400 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski, remain incarcerated in Belarus.
