An unknown number of political prisoners are reported to have been released in the dictatorship of Belarus.
Several of these individuals have already been allowed to leave penal colonies, reports the independent Nasja Niva on Wednesday, citing various human rights organizations.
It is unclear who or how many prisoners are involved.
Belarus's authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that some political prisoners might be released, but presented it as an act of mercy towards prisoners who have fallen ill with serious diseases such as cancer in the country's notorious penal colonies.
Many Belarusians are imprisoned in their home country as a result of democratic mass protests against the rigged presidential election in 2020. The human rights organization Vjasna currently counts over 1,400 people, including many who emerged as opposition front figures before the regime cracked down on the protests with force.
"Today, we heard about the first cases where some political prisoners have been released," writes the leader of the Belarusian exile opposition, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, on social media, referring to Nasja Niva's reports.
Tikhanovskaya, whose husband Sergey Tikhanovskiy is one of the prisoners, describes it as news of a kind that "everyone has been waiting for". Other prominent prisoners include Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova.
