Overview
- Siarhei Tsikhanouski, jailed since May 2020 for planning to challenge Lukashenko, was released with 13 fellow detainees and flown to Lithuania for care.
- President Lukashenko granted the pardons after US special envoy Keith Kellogg’s meeting in Minsk at President Trump’s request.
- Former Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Ihar Karnei and other activists accused of extremism were among those freed.
- More than 1,000 political prisoners remain in Belarusian jails, according to exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
- The move reflects Lukashenko’s ongoing efforts to ease Belarus’s diplomatic isolation after pardoning over 300 inmates since July 2024.