WARSAW: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday pardoned 30 prisoners convicted over protests, the presidential website said.
Lukashenko “signed a decree pardoning 30 people convicted for crimes related to protests,” the statement said, without giving names.
Those pardoned are 14 women and 16 men, the site added: “Some of them have serious illnesses. There are people of retirement age.”
All those pardoned “admitted guilt, sincerely repented for what they did and committed to a law-abiding way of life,” the statement added.
Moscow-ally Lukashenko crushed mass pro-democracy protests after an election on August 9, 2020, in which the government was widely condemned for having allegedly falsified results.
Leading rights group Viasna estimates Belarus has around 1,400 political prisoners. Thousands more people have fled the country.
In July, 18 political prisoners were amnestied or released on exchange, according to Viasna.
Lukashenko last month pardoned a German man, Rico Krieger, sentenced to death on espionage charges, who was exchanged in a large-scale prisoner swap involving the United States and Russia.
Belarus pardons 30 prisoners sentenced for protests: presidency
https://arab.news/m46k9
Belarus pardons 30 prisoners sentenced for protests: presidency
- Lukashenko “signed a decree pardoning 30 people convicted for crimes related to protests,” the statement said
- Those pardoned are 14 women and 16 men, the site added: “Some of them have serious illnesses“
Protesters try to attack driver after truck speeds through anti-Iran demonstration in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.
The U-Haul truck, with its side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.
The police department confirmed its officers were on the scene but didn’t immediately say if anyone was arrested.
Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Several hundred people had gathered Sunday afternoon in the Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. The LA police department eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still at the scene, ABC7 reported.
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.
