Belarus on Tuesday freed 25 people, including dissidents, in the second such release in under a week as US President Donald Trump pressures Minsk to release the more than 1,000 political prisoners rights groups say are behind bars.
President Alexander Lukashenko arrested thousands of protestors and his top political opponents following mass demonstrations against his re-election in 2020 -- a ballot critics say was fraudulent and which triggered the country's biggest protest movement in years.
"Alexander Lukashenko made a decision to pardon 25 people, including those convicted on extremism charges," his office said in a statement.
Belarus has typically charged people who oppose or criticise the government with "extremism", meting out years-long prison sentences.
The Viasna human rights group said that at least some of those freed were political prisoners, but that there were as yet no full details on who had been freed.
The release follows a similar pardoning last week in which Lukashenko freed 52 people, including an EU staff member, journalists, and dissidents, in another US-mediated release.
But one of those freed, opposition leader Mikola Statkevich, has since gone missing after refusing to leave the country.
Amnesty International on Monday said it appeared he had been "forcibly disappeared".
Belarus's prison system is notoriously secretive, with political prisoners often held for months in solitary confinement, with no contact with their family or lawyers on the outside.