Overview

• Sergueï Tikhanovski, husband of exiled leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, was pardoned on June 21 alongside 13 others before being transferred to Lithuania.
• Authorities granted the pardons after a private meeting in Minsk between President Alexandre Loukachenko and US envoy Keith Kellogg that US officials credit with securing the release.
• Tikhanovskaïa publicly thanked President Donald Trump as well as European partners for diplomatic support, urging the liberation of over 1,150 detainees still held in Belarusian prisons.
• Tikhanovski had been serving an 18-year sentence imposed in 2021 for organizing riots and incitement, enduring strict confinement with minimal outside contact.
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the pardons as a powerful sign of hope and repeated her call for the immediate release of all political prisoners.