Belarus president pardons 20 more people convicted of extremist crimes

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 20 more people, who had committed crimes of extremist orientation. 

Among the pardoned are 11 women and nine men.

According to BelTA, 14 convicts have chronic diseases, 10 people have children, and one woman has four children, Caliber.Az reports.

The names of these people and details of their criminal cases are not given.

In early December, Lukashenko pardoned 29 people, convicted of extremist crimes. Then 11 women and 18 men were among the pardoned. Among them were six people under 25, three pensioners, two disabled and 15 people with chronic diseases.

In November, the Belarusian leader signed a decree to pardon 32 people. In total, the head of Belarus has pardoned 209 people since early August.

In March, the Belarusian media wrote with reference to deputy head of the Investigative Committee in Minsk Andrei Hryb that after the protests in 2020, more than 7,400 criminal cases for “extremism” had been initiated in the capital alone.

Mass protests in Belarus began in August 2020 after the announcement of the results of the presidential election, according to which Lukashenko won with a result of 80.1%. According to the official data of the CEC, the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya got 10.1% of the votes.

Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets of the country, while the protests turned into clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers, several people were killed.

Street actions of opponents of Alexander Lukashenko lasted about half a year. Their participants are still being detained.

Criminal cases have been brought against a number of opposition leaders, including calls to seize power, creation of an extremist formation, conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means and attempted terrorist attack.

Lukashenko noted that pardons of persons convicted for participation in the protests in Belarus in 2020 were dictated not by the desire to improve relations with the West, but by humanitarian considerations.

By Tamilla Hasanova