Belarus has released 123 prisoners, including a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Among them is a Japanese citizen who was arrested and sentenced a year ago on suspicion of espionage.
Japanese citizen Masatoshi Nakanishi was arrested in Belarus in 2024 and sentenced to seven years in prison by a court in Minsk in March this year on charges of espionage.
Nakanishi worked as a Japanese language teacher at an educational institution affiliated with a university in the southeastern Belarusian city of Gomel.
The government's indictment in court said Nakanishi had taken more than 9,000 photographs of various areas of Belarus' border with Ukraine over a six-year period and sent them to his home country.
All of the 123 prisoners released by Belarus, Russia's closest ally, were arrested for opposing the government and for their active involvement in the ongoing movement for democratic rights and freedom of expression. The foreigners among them were accused of espionage.
The Japanese embassy in Minsk told several local media outlets that Nakanishi had already been transferred to the Japanese embassy in neighbouring Lithuania and was in good health. However, there was no word on when Nakanishi would return to Japan.
This is the second round of prisoner releases in Belarus. Two Japanese citizens were among the 14 dissidents released by President Alexander Lukashenko in June this year after talks with US President Donald Trump's envoy, Keith Kellogg.
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In addition to maintaining close ties with Russia and supporting Russia's military operation in Ukraine, Belarus has been hit hard by sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western countries for its crackdown on dissent. As a result, President Lukashenko sought a compromise, and negotiations with the United States began on prisoner releases.
After a second meeting with President Lukashenko in Minsk, John Cole, as Trump's envoy, decided to release 123 more prisoners. Last Saturday, 123 people, including Ales Bialiatsky, a co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, were released from prison after President Lukashenko announced their pardon.
John Cole hopes that about 1,000 more prisoners can be released from Belarus in the coming months. In exchange, the United States has agreed to lift some sanctions against Belarus.
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