Belarus frees 52 prisoners after Trump’s intervention, Lithuanian president says

Belarus has released 52 prisoners who have now crossed into Lithuania, the Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has said.

At an emergency press conference on Thursday, Nausėda confirmed that his Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys had received the group at the border.

Six Lithuanians were among the 14 foreigners freed, according to the Belarusian presidency's press service, who said the other foreign nationals came from France, Germany, Poland and the UK.

The move comes a month after US President Donald Trump spoke to Belarus' authoritarian leader Aliaksandr Lukashenka, urging him to release more prisoners.

In a social media post on X, Nausėda thanked Trump for his support, saying that 52 was "a great many" people to have freed. He noted that they had left behind "barbed wire, barred windows and constant fear."

"Yet more than 1,000 political prisoners still remain in Belarusian prisons and we cannot stop until they see freedom!" the Lithuanian president added.

Lukashenka, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, appears to be trying to mend relations with the US through prisoner releases.

Since July 2024, Belarusian authorities have freed around 300 people from jail, including the dissident Siarhei Tsikhanouski, the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

He was allowed to leave the country in June along with 13 others, shortly after a rare visit to Belarus from a senior US envoy.

Belarus, a country of roughly 9.5 million people, has been ruled by Lukashenka for more than three decades.

After he allegedly rigged the presidential election in August 2020, the country experienced its largest ever protests. Thousands of demonstrators were detained in the ensuing crackdown.

In January, Lukashenka won another disputed election victory, meaning that he extended his rule for a seventh term.