Belarus Begins New Pardons After US Envoy Talks, Rights Group Says

Belarus has begun a new round of pardons for political prisoners following talks between President Alexander Lukashenko and US envoy John Coale, the human rights group Viasna said on Wednesday.

Coale, quoted by the Belarusian state news agency Belta, said the two sides had reached an interim agreement under which Belarus would release 25 people and the United States would lift sanctions on two Belarusian companies.

Viasna said relatives of some prisoners had been informed they could collect their loved ones from penal colonies on Wednesday morning.

Washington opened talks with Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, last year and has been easing sanctions on Belarus in return for prisoner releases.

Viasna, which is banned in Belarus, estimates that more than 900 political prisoners remain in detention, even after Coale negotiated the release of hundreds since the middle of last year. The most common charges against them include "extremist" activity, conspiring to seize power, incitement to hatred, or insulting the president.

During Tuesday's talks with Coale, Lukashenko denied that those held were political prisoners and rejected claims by rights groups and the exiled opposition that he is steadily arresting more people to replace those he releases.