By AFP
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko freed another group of political prisoners in the Moscow-allied country, his office said Wednesday, following the surprise release of a key opposition figure last month.
Hundreds of regime opponents remain in prison in Belarus, five years on from Minsk鈥檚 brutal crackdown of massive anti-Lukashenko protests in 2020, with rights groups increasingly worried for their health in the country鈥檚 harsh and secretive jail system.
鈥淎lexander Lukashenko pardoned 16 prisoners,鈥 the Belarusian presidency said, adding that some of them had committed crimes 鈥渙f an extremist nature鈥 — the regime鈥檚 term for political prisoners.
The pardonings came ahead of a state holiday.
Minsk said those freed were eight women and eight men, some of which had 鈥渃hronic illnesses鈥.
It did not name them.
Nine have children under the age of 18, the presidency said.
鈥淎ll of them repented for what they had done and pledged not to break the law,鈥 it added.
Belarus鈥檚 security services are known to pressure political prisoners into confessing to alleged crimes or to making apologies to Lukashenko.
Sergei Tikhanovsky — the husband of exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya — was freed at the end of June along with 13 other political prisoners, in a surprise move after talks with the United States.
Tikhanovsky was almost unrecognisable when he came out. He had lost nearly half his weight in prison and had no contact with the outside world since March 2023.
The Viasna rights group says there are currently 1,164 political prisoners in Belarus.
Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994.