Lukashenko frees Belarus union leader and TV journalist in new prisoner release

By Mark Trevelyan

(Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has freed at least 13 more prisoners convicted in political cases, including a veteran trade unionist and a former state TV journalist who is suffering from a brain tumour, human rights activists said on Wednesday.

Vasil Berasnieu, 74, is a trade union leader who had been serving a nine-year sentence after being found guilty of extremist activity, incitement to hatred and calling for actions deemed harmful to state security.

Former journalist Kseniya Lutskina was serving eight years for "conspiracy to seize power". She was one of the organisers of mass protests that broke out in August 2020 when Lukashenko claimed victory in a presidential election that the opposition and Western government accused him of heavily rigging.

Human rights group Viasna said they and at least 11 others were released this week under pardons issued by Lukashenko on Aug. 16. A further 18 people were freed in early July.

Belarusian state media have cast the pardons as a generous humanitarian act by Lukashenko. In interviews on state TV, some of the former detainees were shown expressing remorse and gratitude.

At least six of those freed had been found guilty of insulting Lukashenko, who has run Belarus for three decades and is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He used his security apparatus to crush the protests in 2020, imprisoning many hundreds of people and forcing others to flee abroad.

Franak Viacorka, an aide to exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said many of those released had grave health issues exacerbated by their imprisonment, and some had been very close to the end of their sentences.

"It is a small success of diplomacy combined with international pressure," he told Reuters. "We should welcome the release of seriously ill prisoners while also reminding the public of the ongoing repression and the 1,400 others still behind bars."

Viasna says the rate of prosecutions in Belarus is actually rising, not falling, with at least 170 people convicted in July of politically related crimes.

Among the best known prisoners still behind bars are Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, 2020 protest leader Maria Kalesnikava and Syarhey Tsikhanouski, the husband of opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya.

Dmitry Bolkunets, an opposition activist, said the prisoner releases were the result of international pressure on Lukashenko, especially from Poland. Poland has leverage because it is the main entry point through which goods from Belarus enter the European Union by road and rail, including shipments originating in China and Russia.

Bolkunets, who has also gathered the signatures of dozens of Nobel prize winners demanding the freeing of Belarusian political prisoners, told Reuters he was hopeful this pressure could lead to more releases - potentially on Aug. 30, when Lukashenko celebrates his 70th birthday, or when Belarus marks its national unity holiday on Sept. 17.

(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Mark Heinrich)