* Lukashenko pardons Sannikov
* EU has imposed sanctions on Belarus over human rights
(Adds Lukashenko’s pardon, Sannikov’s comments)
By Andrei Makhovsky
MINSK, April 14 (Reuters) – Belarussian President Alexander
Lukashenko on Saturday freed jailed opposition leader Andrei
Sannikov after the European Union imposed new sanctions on the
former Soviet republic, Sannikov told Reuters.
Sannikov, a former deputy foreign minister and presidential
candidate, was sentenced to five years in prison last year for
taking part in a protest that followed Lukashenko’s disputed
re-election victory in December 2010.
On Saturday, he said he was released from his high-security
prison thanks to a presidential pardon, a move that may help
calm a diplomatic spat between Minsk and the European Union,
which has been lobbying for his freedom.
“This is a result of solidarity, without solidarity there
would not have been a decision (by Lukashenko),” Sannikov said
by telephone from the city of Vitebsk.
“What I really want to do now is see my family… My
(normal) prison term ended last September. Then torture began,”
he said.
Sannikov is one of the leading opposition leaders in the
tightly run authoritarian nation and his wife, a journalist, was
also jailed by the authorities. She had already been released.
The EU had long demanded Sannikov’s release, imposing travel
bans and asset freezes on a number of Belarussian officials and
businessmen to help secure his freedom.
That pressure triggered a diplomatic row with Minsk in
February that led to all of the 27-nation bloc’s ambassadors
leaving Belarus.
Sannikov, 58, ran against Lukashenko in the 2010 poll which
Western observers criticised as fraudulent. The vote handed
Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm manager, a fourth
term in office.
Sannikov had initially refused to ask Lukashenko for pardon
but submitted such a request last December after what he
described as threats against his family.
A number of other opposition politicians and activists were
detained at the same rally and jailed afterwards, though most
have since been released.
Lukashenko has run Belarus since 1994, tolerating little
dissent and maintaining a Soviet-style economic system with
artificially low prices, a large public sector and nearly full
employment.
He has relied largely on financial support from Russia,
which provides Belarus with cheap energy and other benefits,
seeing it as a buffer between itself and NATO.
Human rights activists say about 15 people are still kept in
Belarussian prisons on political grounds.
(Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
