Overview
- Tsikhanouski was pardoned on June 21 after receiving an 18-year sentence in 2021 for attempting to run against President Alexander Lukashenko.
- A total of 14 political prisoners were released under the same decree, according to a spokesperson for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
- Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya shared a video of his reunion and urged the liberation of more than 1,150 other political detainees.
- Local media linked the sudden pardons to U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg’s recent visit to Minsk.
- Now based in Vilnius, Tsikhanouski joins a growing Belarusian exile community challenging Lukashenko’s regime.