Belarus activist imprisoned after trying to run for president released after serving 5 years

Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a large opposition figure in Bélarus, was released on Saturday after more than five years in prison, in the most important move so far by President Alexander Lukashenko to try to facilitate his isolation from the West.

The 46 -year -old man was led through the border in Lithuania for an emotional meeting with his wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled opposition chief of Bélarus.

The Lithuanian government said that 13 other prisoners had also been released and taken there after talks Between Lukashenko and the American special envoy Keith Kellogg. In total, five Belarusians were released with three poles, two lettons, two Japanese citizens, an Estonian and a Swedish.

Tsikhanouski was seen emerging from a van with a shaved head, smiling and immediately heading to kiss his wife in a long embrace, showed a video published by his office.

“It is difficult to describe joy in my heart,” she said.

Franak Viacorka, the main political advisor to Tsikhanouskaya, told Reuters that Tsikhanouski had lost weight and that his health had suffered. He said he “looks like a different person”, but was in a good mood and joked with American officials.

Viacorka said Tsikhanousi had described “horrible things that happened to him, but he’s not broken … He wants to continue fighting.”

In an article on X, Tsikhanouskaya thanked the American president Donald Trumpas well as Kellogg and others for their efforts to ensure the release of her husband.

Lukashenko was rejected by the West for years after having brutally crushed pro-democracies demonstrations in 2020, then allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin, his close ally, to launch part of his 2022 Invasion of Ukraine of the Belarusian territory.

In the past year, he released more than 300 prisoners in what political analysts consider the start of an attempt to restore relations with Western governments and to seek a relaxation of international sanctions against the Bélarus. Opposition politician Maria Kalesnikava and the Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski are the most important of those behind bars.

“We are not finished,” wrote Tsikhanouskaya, calling for the release of 1,150 other prisoners.

Lukashenko published forgiveness for all those released on Saturday in response to an American request, said his spokesperson Natalya Eismont. In a statement, she said that the liberated Belarusians had been “found guilty of extremist and terrorist activities”.

She said the decision to release Tsikhanouski had been “taken by the president strictly on humanitarian considerations with the aim of family reunification”.

Eismont said Kellogg’s talks with Lukashenko had started on Friday evening and lasted half past 6 during dinner, covering the Ukrainian conflict, the Middle EastRelations between Russia, Belarus and China, and sanctions policy.

“It was night at the end,” she said. “The subjects discussed were as current as one can imagine. They talked about things that concern the whole world.”

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Kellogg, the highest American official to visit Belarus for years, saw his mission like the one who could help jump for peace talks aimed at ending The Russia War against Ukraine.

Among those published by Bélarus, there was Ihar Karnei, former journalist from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, President and Chief Executive Officer of RFE / RL, Stephen Capus, said in a statement thanking Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others.

Viacorka said that liberated individuals did not know where they were going when they were removed from their cells.

“They were handcuffed, brought to the cars, brought to the border. They were surprised, they did not know who had released them, why they were released, what was going on. It was so pleasant to see happiness in their eyes.”

When they arrived in Lithuania, they were taken to the United States Embassy, ​​ate pizza and drank coke, and received mobile phones so that they could speak to their family for the first time in years, he said.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the liberation was “a fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all the political prisoners suffering under the brutal regime of Lukashenka (sic)”.

“The free world needs you, Siarhei!” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X.

Tsikhanouski, a video blogger, was arrested in 2020 while he was planning to introduce himself to Lukashenko, and sentenced the following year to organize mass disorders and encourage social hatred. He was sentenced to 19 and a half, one of the longest prison terms in modern Belarusian history.

His supporters said the charges had been manufactured and politically motivated. Sviatlana ran during the elections in its place, and mass demonstrations broke out after Lukashenko won a landslide victory and the opposition and Western governments accused him of fueling the result.

Viacorka said that the release of Tsikhanouski would stimulate the exiled opposition.

“It is a great boost to our fight, I think that will draw attention to the Belarusian political prisoners and for the Belarus in the world at the moment – we must use this momentum.”