Belarus frees 52 prisoners after Trump appeal, US eases some sanctions on Minsk

VILNIUS: Belarus freed 52 prisoners, including an EU employee, on Thursday (Sep 11) after an appeal from US President Donald Trump as Washington and Minsk flirted with a rapprochement that many European leaders have viewed sceptically.

Trump had previously urged Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to release detainees, described by the US leader as "hostages".

Trump has increased US engagement with the authoritarian state, sending multiple delegations to Minsk this year. His predecessor, former President Joe Biden, sought to further isolate the eastern European nation after it served as a staging ground for Russia's 2022 expanded invasion of Ukraine.

In return for Lukashenko's gesture, Washington will grant sanctions relief to Belarus' national airline, Belavia, allowing it to service and buy components for its aircraft, which include Boeing airplanes, a White House official said.

It was the biggest batch of prisoners pardoned by the authoritarian leader, who is seeking to repair relations with the US after years of isolation and sanctions.

But it was far short of the 1,300 or 1,400 prisoners whose release Trump had called for in a conversation with Lukashenko last month and in subsequent social media posts.

Belarus's exiled opposition said one of the 52, Mikola Statkevich, had refused to go to Lithuania, where the released prisoners were brought. Webcam footage showed him sitting in the no-man's zone at the border, and Lithuania's border guard said he remained in Belarus.

It was not immediately clear why Statkevich, who ran against Lukashenko in a 2010 election, had refused to cross, but the exiled opposition says freed political prisoners should have the right to stay in Belarus rather than submit to what it says amounts to forced deportations.

John Coale, who led the US delegation to Minsk, told Reuters in an interview he hoped for the release of all those prisoners, adding that he believed Lukashenko wanted to change.

"But you don't change after you've been in office for some 30 years. It's not going to happen overnight," Coale added.

Coale was accompanied to Belarus by Christopher Smith, a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department, according to a US official.

"A TRADE IN HUMAN LIVES"

Those released on Thursday included Ihar Losik, 33, a journalist sentenced in 2021 to 15 years in a penal colony on charges of inciting hatred and organising riots.

Prominent critics of Lukashenko's decades-old rule, such as human rights campaigner Ales Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, or Maria Kalesnikava, a leader of the 2020 pro-democracy protests, were not among those released.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the exiled opposition whose husband Siarhei was freed in June, said Thursday's release covered only 4% of those designated as political prisoners.

"We welcome their release but, in essence, this is a trade in human lives - people who should never have been imprisoned in the first place," Tsikhanouskaya said in a statement released to Reuters in which she urged the European Union to maintain sanctions on Belarus until democracy is established.

Belarus' state news agency Belta said those released included 14 foreign nationals - from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, France, Britain and Germany.

"RARE ACT OF PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP"

Coale, Trump's envoy, told Lukashenko that Washington wanted to reopen its embassy in Minsk, Belta reported.

Earlier, Coale passed a letter from Trump in English to Lukashenko, signed "Donald", according to footage from Belta. The fact that Trump had signed the letter simply Donald was "a rare act of personal friendship", it quoted Coale as saying.

"If Donald insists that he is ready to take in all these released prisoners, God bless you, let's try to work out a global deal, as Mr Trump likes to say, a big deal," said Lukashenko.

Lukashenko has led Belarus for more than three decades. He said as recently as August 22 that he was not prepared to release "bandits" who might "wage war" against the state.

Trump has said he plans to meet Lukashenko, long treated as a pariah by the West, and described him as a "very respected man, strong person, strong leader".

The prisoners were released a day after Poland shot down what it says are Russian drones over its territory, and on the eve of joint military exercises involving Russia and Belarus.

Belarus shares borders with three NATO countries and Ukraine. Lukashenko let Putin use Belarusian territory when invading Ukraine in 2022, but the Belarusian army has not directly participated in the war.