Belarus leader pardons 18 prisoners in an effort to improve ties with US

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus' authoritarian president has pardoned 18 more prisoners as part of his recent effort at a rapprochement with the United States.

In a decree announced on Thursday, President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 18 prisoners, including 15 people convicted on extremism charges, which are widely used in Belarus in politically motivated prosecutions. A total of 11 pardoned prisoners are women, the authorities said in an online statement.

This is the latest in a series of prisoner releases, encouraged by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. Lukashenko, largely shunned by the West since his disputed reelection in 2020 that triggered mass protests and a brutal government crackdown in response, has sought to mend fences with Washington in recent years, including by releasing prisoners.

Since the two leaders spoke on the phone in August, Lukashenko has released 123 prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and prominent opposition figures Maria Kolesnikova and Viktar Babaryka. In response, the U.S. lifted sanctions off Belarus' potash fertilizer production and its flagship national airline, Belavia.

Those pardoned this week bring the number to more than 140. John Coale, the U.S. special envoy for Belarus, hailed the move on X Thursday as “another notable step in the relationship between the U.S. and Belarus as President Trump has tasked me with getting all the political prisoners out.”

In the meantime, a total of 1,140 political prisoners remain behind bars, according to the Belarusian human rights group Viasna.

Rights advocates have repeatedly warned that repression in Belarus continues despite the releases, and more people get arrested and convicted.

Just this week, prominent Belarusian musician and poet Aleh Khamenka was sentenced to three years in prison and a steep fine on charges of extremist activities over his cooperation with a banned radio station. Khamenka was detained in June after his house was raided and has spent more than a half year behind bars.

Also this week, Belarusian authorities designated the PEN Belarus association of writers, which has more than 100 members, as an extremist organization.

The head of PEN Belarus, Tatsyana Nyadbay, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that the move was “horrendous,” because it “puts the writers who remain in Belarus at risk.”

Among the members of PEN Belarus are Svetlana Alexievich, who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature, and Bialiatski, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Alexievich left Belarus after the 2020 protests, and Bialiatski spent more than five years in prison on charges widely seen as politically motivated.