Belarus’s longtime leader, Alexander Lukashenko, pardoned 20 political prisoners on Tuesday, authorities said, in an amnesty ahead of the New Year.
Belarus still has over 1,000 political prisoners, more than five years since Lukashenko suppressed huge protests against his rule.
U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration has restarted dialogue with Moscow-ally Belarus in recent months, as it pushes for the release of Belarusian prisoners and seeks to broker an end to the Ukraine war.
The press service of Lukashenko’s office said 22 people had been pardoned—including 20 convicted for “extremist crimes”—the term Belarus uses for political cases.
Fifteen women and seven men were released, it said, adding that Lukashenko had acted “in the interest of their families.”
Earlier this month, Minsk freed more than 100 political prisoners—including protest leader Maria Kolesnikova and dissident Ales Bialiatski—in exchange for the lifting of some U.S. sanctions.
They were pardoned and deported through Lithuania and Ukraine.
NGOs have said some of those released were at the end of their prison terms.
Bialiatski—who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022—told AFP upon his release that he spent months in and out of freezing punishment cells.
He also warned that while Belarus is releasing prisoners with “one hand,” it is arresting more people “with the other.”
Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has welcomed talks with the United States.
His crackdown in Belarus has forced hundreds of thousands into exile.
