Belarus president releases dozens of political prisoners ahead of January election
- 7 November, 14:07
Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 31 political prisoners on Thursday, bringing the number of released political prisoners in the country to 115 this year.
The names of the released prisoners have not been revealed yet, however, Lukashenko’s office said seventeen of those released had chronic diseases and three of them were disabled.
The statement said the freed prisoners had been convicted of “crimes of an extremist nature,” a description widely used for opposition figures and people arrested during mass anti-government protests in 2022 following the disputed presidential elections.
The release of the political prisoners comes ahead of the presidential election scheduled for January. However, the exact reason for the pardoning of Lukashenko’s critics are unknown.
Human rights group Viasna has put the number of Belarus’s political prisoners at 1,278.
Pavel Sapelka from Viasna told The Associated Press that “Lukashenko is giving very contradictory signals - he has released 30 political prisoners, but at the same time arrested more than 100 people in the last week alone.”
“We are seeing an escalation of fear and increased repression in Belarus on the eve of the presidential elections, and it is not entirely clear to whom and what signals Minsk is giving.”
