Belarusian street protest leader Maria Kolesnikova and Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski walked free on Saturday with 121 other political prisoners, released in an unprecedented US-brokered deal, rights groups announced.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has locked up thousands of his opponents, critics, and protestors since an election in 2020 that rights groups widely said was rigged and triggered weeks of unprecedented protests across the country.
Kolesnikova was the star of the 2020 street protests that almost toppled Lukashenko –– in power since 1994 — and famously ripped up her passport as the KGB tried to deport her.
Bialiatski –- a 63-year-old veteran rights defender and 2022 Nobel Prize winner –- is considered by Lukashenko to be a personal enemy and has documented rights abuses for decades.
“Ales Bialiatski is free!” rights group Viasna said on social media about its founder and chair, adding he had spent 1,613 days in prison.
“I spoke with him, he is travelling to Lithuania, and he is feeling well,” his wife Natalia Pinchuk told AFP.