A European diplomatic staffer in Belarus was among 52 prisoners released on Thursday in a deal brokered by Washington.
Under the pact, Minsk agreed to free dozens of political prisoners after the U.S. consented to lift sanctions on its national airline.
Mikalai Khilo, a Belarusian member of staff at the EU’s mission to Minsk, had been sentenced in January to four years in a penal colony. Viasna, a Belgian human rights NGO that has tracked his case, posited in the wake of his April 2024 arrest that he had been charged with insulting strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko.
