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.
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Belarus pardons 30 prisoners sentenced for protests: presidency
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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“
EU regulators hit Elon Musk’s X with 120 million euro fine for breaching bloc’s social media law
- The European Commission issued the decision after a two-year investigation under the Digital Services Act
- They cited issues with X’s blue checkmarks, which they called “deceptive,” and failures in its ad database and data access for researchers
LONDON: European Union regulators on Friday fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X 120 million euros ($140 million) for failing to comply with the bloc’s digital regulations.
The European Commission issued its decision following an investigation it opened two years ago into X under the 27-nation bloc’s Digital Services Act. Also known as the DSA, its a sweeping rulebook that requires platforms to take more responsibility for protecting European users and cleaning up harmful or illegal content and products on their sites, under threat of hefty fines.
The Commission said it was punishing X, previously known as Twitter, because of three different breaches of the DSA’s transparency requirements. The decision could rile President Donald Trump, whose administration has lashed out at digital regulations from Brussels and vowed to retaliate if American tech companies are penalized.
Regulators said X’s blue checkmarks broke the rules because of their “deceptive design” that could expose users to scams and manipulation.
X also fell short of the requirements for its ad database and giving access to researchers access to public data.
The European Commission issued its decision following an investigation it opened two years ago into X under the 27-nation bloc’s Digital Services Act. Also known as the DSA, its a sweeping rulebook that requires platforms to take more responsibility for protecting European users and cleaning up harmful or illegal content and products on their sites, under threat of hefty fines.
The Commission said it was punishing X, previously known as Twitter, because of three different breaches of the DSA’s transparency requirements. The decision could rile President Donald Trump, whose administration has lashed out at digital regulations from Brussels and vowed to retaliate if American tech companies are penalized.
Regulators said X’s blue checkmarks broke the rules because of their “deceptive design” that could expose users to scams and manipulation.
X also fell short of the requirements for its ad database and giving access to researchers access to public data.
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