Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko today pardoned 31 people imprisoned for "extremism", a charge often used against political opponents.
As announced by the presidency of Belarus, a country that is an ally of Russia and in which any criticism of the government is severely suppressed, among those pardoned are two women, 17 chronic patients and three people with disabilities.
In recent months, Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has repeatedly pardoned people detained for anti-government protests - 67 were released in September and 30 in August.
According to the human rights NGO Viasna, another 20 people were released in July after serving their sentences, and 18 others were "pardoned or exchanged".
In this country of about 10 million inhabitants, there are still almost 1.300 political prisoners, that organization stated.
Lukashenko has suppressed protest movements on several occasions. He intends to run for a new term in the presidential elections on January 26, 2025.
Over the past four years, thousands of people have been arrested and opponents, activists and journalists sentenced to heavy sentences, while hundreds of thousands of Belarusian citizens have fled the country, particularly to neighboring Poland.
According to the leader of the Belarusian opposition in exile, Svetlana Tihanovska, dozens of political prisoners are in a "critical" state of health and "their lives are in great danger" in prison.
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