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The husband of the head of the Belarusian opposition, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was unexpectedly released from prison in Belarus, as well as other political prisoners.
Sergei Tikhanovsky was transferred to Lithuania and was reunited with his wife who lives in exile in the Vilnius capital.
It is understood that at least 10 prisoners were released in total, including former journalist RFE Ihar Karnei.
The sudden release came while the American special envoy Keith Kellogg visited Minsk on Saturday and held a meeting with Biélorusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Images on social networks shared by representatives of Tikhanovskaya show that the smiling and hugging couple and Tikhanovsky seems to have lost a lot of weight in detention.
“My husband … is free! It’s hard to describe joy in my heart,” wrote Tikhanovskaya on X.
By thanking Donald Trump, Kellogg and “all the European allies” for their efforts to release her husband, she added: “We have not finished. 1150 Political prisoners remain behind bars. Everything must be released.”
The other released prisoners include five Belarusian and Japanese nationals, Polish and Swedish citizens, according to the office of Tikhanovskaya. In a declaration on X, the Lithuanian Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the 14 political prisoners received care in Lithuania.
Maria Kolesnikova, one of the best known opposition leaders who was imprisoned after the mass demonstrations of 2020, is still in prison, confirmed her sister.
Tikhanovskaya was held in the August 2020 elections after her husband, a former blogger and presidential candidate Tikhanovsky, was placed in police custody. He was imprisoned for 18 years in 2021.
His wife ran in his place and won victory in the polls, which were widely considered faked by Lukashenko supporters, but she was forced to exile With her children the day after the vote.
She has since directed efforts to resist Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Belarusians have left their country since the brutal repression against generalized opposition demonstrations in 2020.
Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in the country in the past five years for political reasons, according to the Human Rights group Viasna.
