Authoritarian Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has pardoned 37 people, including six women, serving prison terms on extremism charges, his press service said on September 16. The statement claimed those pardoned had "repented and promised to conduct law-abiding lives," adding that the clemency was issued due to the Day of National Unity to be marked on September 17. This is the fourth mass-amnesty decree Lukashenka has signed this year to pardon people imprisoned for taking part in the 2020 mass protests against the official result of a presidential poll that named the long-ruling Lukashenka the winner. In all, 115 out of more than 1,300 political prisoners have been pardoned since July. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.
