Belarusian activist and journalist Andrej Gnjot announced on October 31 that he had left Serbia.
Gnjot, who was under house arrest in Belgrade awaiting the court's decision on extradition to Minsk, announced on his Instagram profile that "after a year of desperate struggle - seven months of imprisonment and five months of house arrest, he was evacuated from Serbia to the European Union."
"My story is a Hollywood movie. Please give me some time to get used to the freedom and security that I haven't had for so long. In the coming days, I will invite everyone to a press conference. We won!", wrote Gnjot.
He posted a photo from the plane on his Instagram profile with the message - freedom.
Gnjot's Belgrade lawyer, Filip Sofijanić, confirmed to Radio Free Europe (RSE) that the High Court in Belgrade terminated his detention on October 31 after the legal term of one year expired.
"They could have decided on another measure, for example that he report to the police, but they didn't," said Sofijanić.
Gnjot spent five months under house arrest in Belgrade, waiting for the court's decision to extradite him to Belarus, which is looking for him for alleged tax evasion. He was previously in prison for seven months.
He was arrested at the end of October 2023 at the Belgrade airport, according to an Interpol warrant issued for him by Minsk. Meanwhile, Interpol canceled the warrant.
In May, the High Court in Belgrade made a first-instance decision to extradite Gnjot to Belarus. After appeals from his lawyers, the decision was overturned and the case was sent back for a new decision.
A critic of the Belarusian regime calls the accusations of alleged tax evasion "false", stating that it is a "systemic mechanism of prosecution" of political opponents by the authorities in Minsk.
He is one of several hundreds of thousands of citizens of Belarus who took part in mass demonstrations in 2020, challenging the victory of Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential elections.
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Western countries do not recognize the results of those elections, and the European Union imposed sanctions on Minsk due to the repression of the participants in the demonstrations.
On September 19, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on political prisoners in Belarus, in which it called on Serbia to refrain from extraditing Andrej Gnjot.
Numerous international organizations and media associations called for his release.
Alexander Lukashenko has been in power in Belarus for thirty years, accused of repression of political dissidents.
There are more than 1.500 political prisoners in Belarusian prisons. Among them are journalists, human rights activists and politicians.
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