Belarus' Lukashenko refuses to free political prisoners despite pledge to Trump
Photo: Self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko (Getty Images)
Self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has admitted that he will not fulfill his promise to US President Donald Trump to release political prisoners. Instead, he called the prisoners bandits, according to the Belarusian state agency BELTA.
Lukashenko stated that there are allegedly no political prisoners in Belarus. The self-proclaimed head of state calls those whom his regime has imprisoned bandits.
"Do you want one and a half or two thousand (as they count there)? Take them, take them there. Do you expect us to release bandits who burned and blew things up, and they admit it... We release them, and they will wage war against us again?" he said.
Lukashenko also lied, saying that his society would not support him in this. In other words, he does not plan to release prisoners convicted under political articles.
On August 15, before meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Trump had a telephone conversation with Lukashenko. Among other things, they discussed the release of political prisoners and more.
According to Trump, Lukashenko allegedly promised to release 1,300 political prisoners. According to the Belarusian opposition and human rights activists, this is the number of people currently being held in the torture chambers of Lukashenko's regime.
Before this, on June 21, a number of Belarusian opposition figures were released with the assistance of the United States.
