Belarusian street protest leader Maria Kolesnikova and Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski walked free on Saturday with 121 other political prisoners released in an unprecedented US-brokered deal.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has locked up thousands of his opponents, critics and protestors since the 2020 election, which rights groups said was rigged and which triggered weeks of protests that almost toppled him.

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