MOSCOW (Reuters) -Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned 30 individuals who were convicted of taking part in protests, state news agency Belta reported on Friday.
It said, without naming them, that Lukashenko had pardoned 14 women and 16 men.
The veteran leader, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been in power for three decades. In 2020 he used his police and security forces to crush mass protests after an election that the opposition and the West accused him of rigging.
In recent months, dozens of Nobel prize winners have joined calls on Lukashenko to release those detained during those demonstrations. Human rights groups say there are some 1,400 political prisoners in Belarus.
Lukashenko released an initial batch of 18 prisoners at the start of July including Ryhor Kastusiou, a veteran opposition figure suffering from cancer.
(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Maxim Rodionov and Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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