According to his office, Belarusian President; Alexander Lukashenko on Monday pardoned 37 inmates who were serving prison terms for “extremist” offenses.
The autocratic leader has pardoned scores of political inmates for the fourth time since July, which some analysts interpret as an effort to improve his standing. The six women among the inmates who were granted pardons on Monday were mentioned by Mr. Lukashenko’s office, but no names were given. It called those who participated in protests “crimes of an extremist character” and accused them of it.
According to Mr. Lukashenko’s press office, everyone had expressed regret and requested their release. As per the Viasna Human Rights Center, Belarus has around 1,300 political prisoners. Among them is the founder of the group.
They include Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish newspaper journalist, whose release Poland is requesting, and Ales Bialiatski, the group’s founder and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. According to Viasna, at least six political prisoners have passed away in custody. The largest-ever protests in Belarus occurred in 2020 in the wake of an election that secured Mr. Lukashenko a sixth term in government but was denounced as rigged by the opposition and the West.
Viasna reports that hundreds of thousands of people have left Belarus and that 65,000 people have been imprisoned since the protests started. Before Monday’s announcements, Mr. Lukashenko had, since July, granted the pardons of 78 other individuals convicted of taking part in large-scale demonstrations, among whom were journalists and activists suffering from grave diseases.
Among them was Ryhor Kastusiou, the head of the Belarusian Popular Front, who has serious cancer.
Representative Pavel Sapelka for Viasna stated that Mr. Lukashenko’s pardoning of certain prisoners does not imply an easing of his crackdown on dissent.
“The authorities have rounded up four times as many activists — about 400 people in three months — and the release of some political prisoners does not signal the beginning of a thaw in Belarus,” Mr. Sapelka stated.
A few analysts connected the pardons to the next presidential election, where Mr. Lukashenko is expected to prolong his 30-year reign. According to analyst Valery Karbalevich, “Lukashenko is trying to humanize his image ahead of the presidential election to start bargaining with the West about the recognition of vote results and a partial rollback of Western sanctions.”