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Lukashenka has promised to release all political prisoners

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has promised to release by the beginning of October all political prisoners who were convicted in connection with a post-election protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010, according to a document obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov met with Mr. Lukashenka in Minsk last week and outlined the proposal in a letter to the European Union`s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and the bloc`s foreign ministers ahead of their meeting in Poland this weekend, Reuters said.

According to Mr. Mladenov`s letter, the Belarusian leader agreed to release at least four prisoners by the end of this week, which he did on September 1, and drop charges against two others. He promised that all remaining political prisoners would be released by the beginning of October.

Mr. Lukashenka’s spokesman Pavel Lyohki would not comment on the report. “All questions regarding this report should be addressed to the sources of this report,” Mr. Lyohki told BelaPAN.

The Bulgarian minister’s letter also said that Mr. Lukashenka would invite his political opponents to a round-table discussion on the country`s future — an appeal that he made on Monday — and would ask the EU to send a team of “wise men” to Minsk to monitor and facilitate the discussion.

"I believe these initiatives, if implemented over the course of the next few days, would create an opening for the EU to engage constructively in support of democratization in Belarus," Mr. Mladenov reportedly wrote.

The EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the Belarus issue on Saturday during their talks in Sopot on Poland`s Baltic coast.

"There is no way anybody would now discuss [Mr. Lukashenka`s proposal of round-table talks and the visit of an EU team] as long as all prisoners are not freed. This is an absolute pre-condition," one EU diplomatic source told Reuters on Thursday, commenting on Mr. Mladenov`s letter.

"Belarus is trying to play the same game as always but this time it won`t work," the source said. "Minsk tried to get in via traditional channels in Italy and Lithuania but was rebuffed and then Bulgaria agreed to step in."

In his letter, Mr. Mladenov said that the Belarusian leader`s stated interest in renewing contacts with the EU "may have been driven by the financial restraints that the government is facing, as well as the effect of the sanctions and the external environment in general".

Dzmitry Daronin, Aleh Hnedchyk, Ales Kirkevich and Andrey Pratasenya were pardoned by Mr. Lukashenka on September 1. On August 11, Mr. Lukashenka pardoned nine other men who were convicted of participation in disturbances in connection with the December 19 protest.

More than 40 people were charged under the Criminal Code over the protest. Twenty-eight of them were subsequently sentenced to prison terms, including former presidential candidates Andrey Sannikaw, Mikalay Statkevich and Dzmitry Uss (Vus).

Now that Mr. Lukashenka has pardoned 13 of them, 15 remain in prison.