The husband of Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has been unexpectedly released from prison in Belarus, along with other political prisoners.
Sergei Tikhanovsky has been moved to Lithuania and has been being reunited with his wife who lives in exile in the capital Vilnius.
It is understood at least 10 prisoners have been released in total, including the former RFE journalist Ihar Karnei.
The sudden release came as US special envoy Keith Kellogg visited Minsk on Saturday and held a meeting with Authoritarian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Footage on social media shared by Tikhanovskaya’s representatives show the couple smiling and hugging and Tikhanovsky appears to have lost a lot of weight in custody.
“My husband … is free! It’s hard to describe the joy in my heart,” Tikhanovskaya wrote on X.
Thanking Donald Trump, Kellogg and “all European allies” for their efforts to get her husband released, she added: “We’re not done. 1150 political prisoners remain behind bars. All must be released.”
The other released prisoners include five Belarusian nationals and Japanese, Polish and Swedish citizens, according to Tikhanovskaya’s office. In a statement on X, the Lithuanian foreign minister said the 14 political prisoners were receiving care in Lithuania.
Maria Kolesnikova, one of the best known opposition leaders who was jailed after the mass protests of 2020, is still in prison, her sister confirmed.
Tikhanovskaya stood in the August 2020 elections after her husband, former blogger and presidential candidate Tikhanovsky, was taken into custody. He was jailed for 18 years in 2021.
His wife ran in his place and claimed victory in the polls, which were widely thought to be rigged by supporters of Lukashenko, but she was forced into exile with her children the day after the vote.
She has since led efforts to resist Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994.
Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians are estimated to have left their country since the brutal crackdown on widespread opposition protests in 2020.
Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in the country in the past five years for political reasons, according to human rights group Viasna.