Belarus frees US man jailed in opposition crackdown
FILE - Belarus frees US man jailed in opposition crackdown. (Photo: AP)
Belarus said Thursday it had freed an opposition figure and naturalised US citizen jailed for trying to "seize power" from authoritarian leader
Alexander Lukashenko
, an allegation that Washington called bogus.
Yuras Zyankovich
, 47, was arrested in April 2021 during a crackdown on opposition figures opposed to Lukashenko's rule.
He was sentenced to 11 years prison for "organising a conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means", a charge rights groups said was linked to his opposition work.
Belarusian security services arrested tens of thousands of people in the wake of 2020 elections that saw strongman ruler Lukashenko return to power.
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Hundreds of them were beaten in custody.
Zyankovich, a Minsk-born politician who later became a naturalised US citizen, was a prominent member of the now-banned Belarusian Popular Front party opposed to Lukashenko.
"At the request of the US presidential administration, US citizen Yuras Zyankovich has been released," Lukashenko's press secretary told the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that Belarus had released a "wrongfully detained" US citizen, without naming him.
There are at least 1,200 political prisoners including politicians and journalists still in Belarusian jails, according to human rights monitor Viasna.
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