Belarus President Frees Six Jailed Opponents before Election
Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko has released from jail six opposition leaders -- considered the last political prisoners in the ex-Soviet state -- less than two months before the next presidential poll, the presidency announced Saturday.
A pardon for the six was revealed in a brief statement. Among the freed opponents is Mikola Statkevich, a former presidential candidate imprisoned since 2010.
Statkevich's wife confirmed to AFP that he had been freed and was expected to arrive late Saturday in the capital Minsk.
"Considering humane principles, President Lukashenko has decided to pardon and allow to go free" the six opposition figures, the presidency said.
The move came as Lukashenko, in power since 1994, is seeking his fifth term in the October 11 election.
Once dubbed by Washington as "Europe's last dictator" for his authoritarian rule, Lukashenko now find himself facing chilled relations with former master Moscow over the Ukraine conflict while grappling with an economy that is dependent on Russia and has slid into recession.
He recently made a return to the international scene hosting Ukraine peace talks in Minsk between pro-Moscow rebels and the leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia.
The 60-year-old president was re-elected to a fourth term in December 2010 in a poll marred by a violent crackdown on the opposition.
Statkevich, now aged 58, was a rival candidate in that disputed election, winning just one percent of the vote.
He was sentenced in 2010 to six years in jail for allegedly organising mass street protests against Lukashenko's victory.
Lukashenko's main rival in that election, Andrei Sannikov, founder a pro-democracy movement, was pardoned in April 2012, a year and a half after being incarcerated for having called on Belarussians to protest the election result.
Statkevich had been recognized as a political prisoner by Amnesty International and Western officials regularly pushed for his release.
Lukashenko earlier this month had refused to give a definite answer on when Statkevich could be released, but suggested it could be before the October vote.
"If (I decide) to release him, then it will be before the elections," he said.
Another of the freed opponents, Mikola Rubsev, had been arrested in the 2010 protests while wearing a t-shirt calling for Lukashenko to go. The other four men in detention were accused of belonging to an anarchist group that clashed with the local KGB, successor of the Soviet secret police.
Source: Agence France Presse
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