Belarus releases 123 political prisoners together with Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski after take care of Trump

Belarus has released 123 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, after the US agreed to lift sanctions on the country.  

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, as well as key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova, were among dozens of political prisoners released today. 

It comes after two days of talks with US Donald Trump‘s special envoy, John Coate, in Minsk, saw the US lift sanctions on its potash sector. 

Potash is an essential ingredient for fertiliser, and is also a key export for the Eastern European country with close ties to the Kremlin. 

Coats described his talks with Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko as ‘very productive’ as he maintained normalising relations between their countries was the ‘goal’. The European Union does not recognise Lukashenko as the president.

‘As relations between the two countries normalise, more and more sanctions will be lifted,’ he told the BBC. 

In 2023, Mr Bialiatski had been sentenced to ten years behind bars for what the Belarusian justice called ‘illegal activities’ of civil society.

Human rights organisations and other governments claimed his imprisonment was due to his work with democracy and human rights, according to the Civil Rights Defenders. 

His wife, Natalia Pinchuk revealed the first thing she told her 2022 Nobel Prize-winning husband upon his release was that she loved him. 

‘Today, I was checking my watch every minute, checking my phone every minute so as not to miss this news,’ she said from Oslo, where she now lives.

‘I finally received a call from the American delegation that took part in the release of Belarusian political prisoners,’ she added, as she thanked US negotiators. 

‘The first words I said to him were that I love him, that I’m sending him a kiss, that I’m happy to hear his voice.’

Meanwhile, also among the freed political prisoners was prominent opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova, who had been jailed since 2020. 

The sister of the imprisoned woman, who had spent a great deal of her time in isolation, relentlessly fought for her sister’s freedom. 

Speaking of how she was looking forward to embracing her sister, Tatiana Khomich told the BBC: ‘She is free, she looks fine, she looks good.’

The deal struck between the US and Belarus brought an end to the Eastern European country’s isolation internationally. 

Lukashenko had ruled the nation of 9.5million with an iron fist for over three decades, and was repeatedly sanctioned by the West. 

Both the US nor the EU recognised Lukashenko as president due unfair elections five years ago sparked mass protests and brutal police retaliation. 

Among the hundreds arrested was Kolesnikova, as the political suppression continued in Belarus. 

And sanctions from the West only continued after the country allowed Russian troops to enter its territory and launch airstrikes against Ukraine in 2022. 

 

Among the 123 freed Saturday were a U.S. citizen, six citizens of U.S. allied countries, and five Ukrainian citizens, a US official told The Associated Press in an email. 

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official described the release as ‘a significant milestone’ in relations between the two countries. 

They also described the outcome of talks as ‘yet another diplomatic victory’ for US President Donald Trump. 

Pavel Sapelka, an advocate with the Viasna rights group, confirmed to the AP that Bialiatski and Kolesnikova were among those released.

Bialiatski, a human rights advocate who founded Viasna, was in jail when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 along with the prominent Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties. He was later convicted of smuggling and financing actions that violated public order – charges that were widely denounced as politically motivated – and sentenced to 10 years in 2023.

Bialiatski told the AP by phone Saturday that his release after 1,613 days behind bars came as a surprise – in the morning, he was still in an overcrowded prison cell.

‘It feels like I jumped out of icy water into a normal, warm room, so I have to adapt. After isolation, I need to get information about what’s going on,’ said Bialiatski, who seemed energetic but pale and emaciated in post-release videos and photos.

He vowed to continue his work, stressing that ‘more than a thousand political prisoners in Belarus remain behind bars simply because they chose freedom. And, of course, I am their voice.’

Kolesnikova, meanwhile, was a key figure in the mass protests that rocked Belarus in 2020 and is a close ally of an opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

Known for her close-cropped hair and trademark gesture of forming a heart with her hands, Kolesnikova became an even greater symbol of resistance when Belarusian authorities tried to deport her in September 2020. Driven to the Ukrainian border, she briefly broke away from security forces at the frontier, tore up her passport and walked back into Belarus.

The 43-year-old professional flutist was convicted in 2021 on charges including conspiracy to seize power and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Among the others who were released, according to Viasna, was Viktar Babaryka – an opposition figure who had sought to challenge Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election, widely seen as rigged, before being convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges he rejected as political.

Viasna reported that the group’s imprisoned advocates, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, and prominent opposition figure Maxim Znak were also freed. But it later said it was clarifying its report about Stefanovic’s release, and Bialiatski told the AP that Stefanovic had not been freed, though he hopes he will be soon.

Most of the freed prisoners were sent to Ukraine, Franak Viachorka, Tsikhanouskaya’s senior adviser, told the AP. Eight or nine others, including Bialiatski, were being sent to Lithuania on Saturday, and more prisoners will be taken to the Baltic country in the next few days, Viachorka said.

Ukrainian authorities confirmed that Belarus had handed over 114 civilians, including five Ukrainian nationals. Freed Belarusian nationals ‘at their request’ and ‘after being given necessary medical treatment’ will be taken to Poland and Lithuania, they said.

Lukashenko’s press secretary, Natalya Eismont, said those released were sent to Ukraine because Kyiv was to free several imprisoned Belarusian and Russian nationals as part of the deal, although Ukrainian officials haven’t confirmed the claim yet.

When U.S. officials last met with Lukashenko in September, Washington eased some of the sanctions on Belarus while Minsk released more than 50 political prisoners.

‘The freeing of political prisoners means that Lukashenko understands the pain of Western sanctions and is seeking to ease them,’ Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition leader in exile, told the AP on Saturday.

She added: ‘But let’s not be naive: Lukashenko hasn’t changed his policies, his crackdown continues and he keeps on supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine. That’s why we need to be extremely cautious with any talk of sanctions relief, so that we don’t reinforce Russia’s war machine and encourage continued repressions.’

Belarus, which previously accounted for about 20% of global potash fertilizer exports, has been forced to sharply cut them after Western sanctions targeted state producer Belaruskali and cut off transit through Lithuania’s port in Klaipeda, the country’s main export route.

‘Sanctions by the U.S., EU and their allies have significantly weakened Belarus’s potash industry, depriving the country of a key source of foreign exchange earnings and access to key markets,’ Anastasiya Luzgina, an analyst at the Belarusian Economic Research Center BEROC, told the AP, noting that Minsk likely hopes this paves the way for easing the more painful European sanctions.

The latest round of U.S.-Belarus talks also touched on Venezuela, as well as Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Belta reported.

Coale told reporters that Lukashenko had given ‘good advice’ on how to address the war, saying that Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin were ‘longtime friends’ with ‘the necessary level of relationship to discuss such issues.’

The U.S. official told the AP that ‘continued progress in U.S.-Belarus relations’ also requires steps to resolve tensions between Belarus and neighbouring Lithuania, which is a member of the EU and NATO.

The Lithuanian government this week declared a national emergency over security risks posed by meteorological balloons sent from Belarus. The balloons forced Lithuania to repeatedly shut down its main airport, stranding thousands of people.