By Andrius Sytas and Mark Trevelyan
VILNIUS, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Belarus has agreed to free 25 prisoners in return for a further easing of U.S. sanctions, an envoy for President Donald Trump said on Wednesday.
The deal was part of lengthy negotiations, under way since last year, in which Washington is urging Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to free hundreds of people including human rights campaigners, political activists, journalists and lawyers in return for sanctions relief.
The process is sensitive because Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has long been shunned by the West for repressing his opponents and supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. European Union sanctions against Belarus remain firmly in place.
“We agreed to an interim deal, and as a show of goodwill Belarus will release 25 people and in exchange the United States will lift sanctions on two companies,” Trump’s envoy, John Coale, told reporters in the Belarusian capital Minsk.
ENVOY HOPES FOR MORE RELEASES SOON
The figure of 25 releases was much lower than the 250 that Coale negotiated when he last visited Minsk in March.
However, the American said both sides would work to resolve outstanding issues to pave the way for more prisoners to go free and further sanctions to be removed.
“We will continue to improve US-Belarus relations and are working to secure the release of more people in the very near future. We are not finished!” he posted later on X.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the 25 had been safely brought to neighbouring Lithuania.
Among those released, according to human rights group Viasna, were prominent journalist Andrei Alyaksandrau, who was serving a 14-year term, and his wife Iryna Zlobina, sentenced to nine years.
Authorities also freed Liudmila Chekina, head of the independent news portal TUT.BY, which was shut down in 2021. She had been serving a 12-year term.
A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that, in addition to the 25, a significant number of prisoners were expected to be freed and remain inside Belarus.
Viasna said relatives of some detainees had been told they could collect their loved ones from penal colonies on Wednesday morning.
LUKASHENKO DENIES REPLACING SOME PRISONERS WITH OTHERS
Viasna, which is banned in Belarus, says the former Soviet state still held more than 900 political prisoners as of the start of this week, even after Coale negotiated the release of hundreds since the middle of last year.
Among the most frequent charges against them are “extremist” activity, conspiring to seize power, incitement to hatred, or insulting the president.
At Tuesday’s talks with Coale, Lukashenko denied the people in question were political prisoners and rejected assertions by rights groups and the exiled opposition that he is steadily arresting more people to replace those he releases.
The two companies to be removed from U.S. sanctions are Lakokraska, a manufacturer of paints and industrial coatings, and Bellesbumprom, a state-owned industrial concern that oversees the forestry, pulp and paper sectors. Sanctions against them had been in place since 2008 and 2023, respectively.
Coale also promised Lukashenko on Tuesday to get U.S. banks to hand back tens of millions of dollars in frozen Belarusian assets.
Coale’s efforts since last year have led to the release, among many others, of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figures. His diplomacy has earned gratitude from many Belarusians, but human rights groups and opposition politicians say arrests continue and Lukashenko has yet to end repression in the country.
“Today, alongside our joy for those released, we remember those who remain behind bars,” Tsikhanouskaya posted on X.
“There are hundreds of them. Behind every number is a person, their family, and their loved ones who continue to wait.”
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius and Mark Trevelyan in London; Additional reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy, Felix Light, Stine Jacobsen and Louise Rasmussen; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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