Belarus leader Lukashenko pardons 15 people jailed on political charges

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday pardoned 15 people imprisoned on political charges, the latest in a series of releases that U.S. President Donald Trump has urged him to make.

Lukashenko's office said the 15 were serving sentences for "extremist" offences, a charge that the authorities have frequently levelled against his political opponents. Three people convicted of other unspecified crimes were also freed.

Trump last year reopened contacts with Lukashenko, long treated by the West as a pariah and hit by sanctions over his human rights record and backing for Russia's war in Ukraine, and urged him to release all political prisoners in the country.

Trump's envoy John Coale persuaded Lukashenko in December to release 123 people, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and prominent opposition figures Maria Kalesnikava and Viktar Babaryka. In return, the U.S. removed sanctions on Belarusian potash, a key ingredient in fertilisers.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya welcomed Thursday's releases but said many more remained in prison.

"Every political prisoner released is a life saved," she posted on X. "But more than 1,100 remain behind bars. We must not stop until they are all free."

Belarusian authorities did not name those freed in the latest batch but said they included 11 women.