Belarus’ hardline president releases 31 political prisoners but crackdown persists

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has led a harsh crackdown on opposition, has pardoned and released 31 political prisoners. Their names were not made public but Lukashenko’s office said three of them are invalids and 17 have chronic illnesses. Human rights activists and former prisoners say medical care and health conditions in Belarusian prisons are poor. The announcement said the released prisoners had been convicted of “crimes of an extremist nature,” a description widely used for opposition figures and people arrested in the mass protests that arose in 2020 after the disputed results of a presidential election gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office.