Belarus frees key opposition figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski following rare visit from top US envoy
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus has freed Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a key dissident figure and the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, following a visit there by a senior Trump administration official, Tsikhanouskaya's team announced on Saturday.
It said Tsikhanouski, a popular blogger and activist, had arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, alongside 13 other political prisoners. Tsikhanouski's release came just hours after the Belarusian authorities announced that the country's authoritarian President, Alexander Lukashenko, met with Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg in Minsk.
Tsikhanouski was jailed in 2020 after announcing plans to challenge Lukashenko in that year's election. Following his arrest, his wife ran in his stead, rallying large crowds in her support across the country. Official results of the election handed Lukashenko his sixth term in office but were denounced by the opposition and the West as a sham.
Amid unprecedented protests that broke out in the aftermath of the vote, Tsikhanouskaya left the country under pressure from the authorities. Her husband was later sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison on charges of organizing mass riots.
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