Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he would release some of the seriously ill political prisoners jailed during the 2020 protests against his dictatorial rule.
TALLINN, Estonia — TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced Tuesday the release of several seriously ill political prisoners jailed during 2020 protests against his authoritarian rule.
It was Lukashenko’s first reference to the humanitarian release of political prisoners since mass protests rocked the country following his disputed sixth re-election – a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Belarusian opposition – and what Western countries have called a sham election.
The post-vote crackdown has seen more than 35,000 people arrested, thousands brutally beaten in custody, dozens of independent media outlets and human rights groups shut down, and journalists jailed.
According to the Viasna Human Rights Center, there are currently 1,409 political prisoners in Belarus, including Ales Bialyacki, who will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. At least six inmates have died in prison, according to human rights activists.
Lukashenko said those to be released included those who “divided and tore the country apart” during the 2020 protests.
President Lukashenko did not say how many people would be released.
“These are really seriously ill people, most of them with cancer. We treat and treat them all humanely,” he said.
Viasna head Pavel Sapelka told The Associated Press that as of early May, at least 254 political prisoners were at risk of health risks, with 91 in serious condition.
Belarusian prisons “torture” all political prisoners by depriving them of medical care and information from the outside world, Sapelka said. “Healthy people quickly become ill in Belarusian prisons,” he said.
The UN has previously appealed to Belarusian authorities over the health of former presidential candidate Lihor Kastusiov, who is dying of cancer in prison, journalist Ksenia Rutkina has a brain tumor and political prisoner Pavel Kuczynski has stage four cancer.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, an exiled Belarusian opposition leader whose husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouskaya, was sentenced to 19 years and six months in prison, told The Associated Press that 15 to 20 people are being arrested every day in Belarus for political reasons and that “the repression is going on.”
“The urgent release of people in critical condition is not a political issue, it’s a humanitarian issue,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “They should be released unconditionally.”
The US State Department has called for the release of all Belarusian political prisoners.
“We respect the courage of Belarus’ 1,500 political prisoners, held captive solely for trying to exercise the freedoms that independence should bring,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday marking Belarus’ Independence Day.
