VILNIUS (Reuters) -Belarus opposition leader Syarhei Tsikhanouski and 13 other prisoners have been released from jail and are now free in Lithuania, the neighbouring country’s government said.
The release was brokered by U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg, a spokesperson for Lithuania’s prime minister said.
Kellogg earlier met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the country’s state news agency Belta said.
Tsikhanouski’s wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in a post on social media platform X thanked U.S. President Donald Trump as well as Kellogg and others for their efforts to secure her husband’s release.
“We’re not done,” Tsikhanouskaya wrote on her X account, calling for the release of a further 1,150 prisoners.
Siarhei was seen emerging from a van with a shaven head, smiling and immediately stepping up to hug his wife in a long embrace, a video released by her office showed.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Kellogg, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Belarus in years, saw his mission as one that could help jump-start peace talks aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“President Trump encouraged this trip,” Kellogg’s deputy John Coale said in a video posted on his account on X.
Five Belarus nationals were released along with three Poles, two Latvians, two Japanese citizens, one Estonian and one Swede, Lithuania said.
Among those released by Belarus was Ihar Karnei, a former journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement thanking Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others.
“We thank Secretary Rubio and his team, the Lithuanian government, and the international community for their support of our imprisoned journalists,” he added.
VON DER LEYEN, POLAND WELCOME THE RELEASE
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X that the release was “fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all the political prisoners suffering under the brutal Lukashenka (sic) regime”.
“The free world needs you, Siarhei!”, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X.
A Belarus court in 2021 found Syarhei Tsikhanouski, a 43-year-old video blogger, guilty of organising mass unrest and of inciting social hatred, and handed him one of the longest jail terms in modern Belarusian history.
His supporters said the charges were fabricated and politically motivated, and his wife has called the verdict political revenge.
His wife ran in the elections in his place, and mass protests broke out after Lukashenko said he’d won the elections. Tsikhanouskaya has since left the country for exile in Lithuania.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why Kellogg travelled to Minsk and met with Lukashenko.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas; Additional reporting by Fylyp Lebediev and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Terje Solsvik, Mark Potter, Franklin Paul and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
By Andrius Sytas
