OAN Staff Abril Elfi
4:03 PM – Sunday, January 26, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced the release of a United States citizen who was imprisoned in Belarus.
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On Sunday, Rubio wrote in a post on X that “Belarus just unilaterally released an innocent American, ANASTASSIA Nuhfer, who was taken under JOE BIDEN!” crediting President Donald Trump for his leadership.
Rubio also said that Christopher Smith, State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Eastern Europe and Policy and Regional Affairs, “from our team did a great job on this.”
No further information has been released on Nuhfer or his release.
On Sunday, Belarus is holding its national presidential election. Currently, President Alexander Lukashenko is expected to get another term on top of his three decades in power.
Many of Lukashenko’s opponents are calling the election fake, similarly to how it was labeled in 2020, triggering months of protests. According to the Associated Press (AP), the protests led to over 65,000 arrests, with thousands beaten, bringing condemnation and sanctions from the West.
As of right now, Belarus holds approximately 1,300 political prisoners, despite Lukashenko pardoning over 250 people since July.
However, in operations against the friends and family of political prisoners, officials have arrested hundreds more in an effort to quell opposition.
AP also reported that those who have donated money to groups opposing the president have been sought out by officials and forced to sign papers saying they were warned against participating in unsanctioned demonstrations.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition leader in exile who left Belarus due to pressure from the government after running against the president in 2020, told the AP that Sunday’s election was “a senseless farce, a Lukashenko ritual.”
According to her, world leaders should not accept the outcome from a nation “where all independent media and opposition parties have been destroyed and prisons are filled by political prisoners,” and voters should cross off everyone on the ballot.
“The repressions have become even more brutal as this vote without choice has approached, but Lukashenko acts as though hundreds of thousands of people are still standing outside his palace,” she said.
The European Parliament has also urged the European Union (EU) to reject the election outcome.
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