Łukašenka says 2024 amnesty program should differ from previous one

January 11, Pozirk. A possible amnesty program timed to the anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazis “should be different” from the previous ones, Alaksandar Łukašenka has told law enforcement officials at a government conference.

“We will have to look more closely at women and children, women with children, other groups of convicts,” his press office cited him as saying.

“We need to see who we arrest and who we convict,” the Belarusian ruler told Interior Minister Ivan Kubrakoŭ “Do the imposed penalties correspond to the gravity of the crimes and the danger these people pose to society?”

The previous amnesty program was approved in late 2022 and lasted until early June 2023.

Officials made it clear in 2022 that the amnesty would not apply to people sentenced on politically-motivated charges.