TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned 30 prisoners convicted of taking part in protests, his office announced Friday.
Belarusian exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya welcomed the move but vowed to keep fighting until all of the country’s roughly 1,400 political prisoners are released.
Lukashenko’s office said it had pardoned 14 women and 16 men, including elderly and seriously ill people, without giving their names.
The 2020 presidential election, widely viewed both at home and abroad as a sham, gave Lukashenko a sixth term as president and sparked the largest protests and crackdown on opposition in Belarus’ post-Soviet history.
Lukashenko’s regime has responded to the protests with a brutal crackdown, arresting more than 35,000 people and beating thousands more, and many opposition figures have been convicted and given long prison sentences, while others have fled the country.
Lukashenko, who is celebrating 30 years in power this year, has weathered the protests thanks to strong backing from Moscow, who has allowed Russian troops to use Belarusian territory to invade Ukraine in 2022 and has allowed Moscow to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Human rights group Viasna estimates there are currently about 1,400 political prisoners in Belarus, including its founder, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialyacki. Viasna said earlier this month that 65,000 people had been arrested since the protests began.
In July, Belarusian authorities released 18 seriously ill political prisoners, including opposition leader Lihor Kastsiov, who was suffering from cancer.
Tikhanovskaya, who was forced to leave Belarus under pressure from the authorities after contesting 2020 elections against President Lukashenko, said on Friday that the pardon for 30 more political prisoners was a “small but important step forward.”
“But it breaks my heart to know that every day more people are being detained and many more are locked up in prison,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “We will not stop our struggle until they are all released.”
