Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the release of 123 political prisoners, pushing high-profile opponents into exile hours after a U.S. envoy announced that Washington will lift sanctions on the country’s potash industry.

Lukashenko pardoned the group following two days of talks with President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, John Coale, whose comments on potash were reported by the state-run Belarusian news service Belta.

Exiled human rights centre Viasna said those freed on Saturday included Maria Kalesnikava, a flute player who became one of the public faces of pro-democracy protests and was jailed for 11 years in 2021. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, who was sentenced to 10 years in 2023, was also freed and forcibly deported to Lithuania, Viasna said.

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