A dissident film director from Belarus is released after 1 year of detention in Serbia

BERLIN — A noted Belarusian film director and dissident who was held in Serbia for a year while Belarus sought his extradition has been released and gone to Germany.

Andrei Hniot told The Associated Press that Serbian authorities released him from house arrest on Thursday, exactly a year after he was detained. Under Serbian law, pre-extradition detention cannot exceed one year, said his lawyer Filip Sofijanic.

Belarus issued an international warrant for Hniot on charges of tax evasion, which he claims are false.

Hniot is a noted critic of Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. He participated in the huge protests that gripped the country in 2020 following a a presidential election whose disputed results gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office.

Authorities launched an extensive and harsh crackdown on opposition amid the protests, which continues to the present day. More than 65,000 people were arrested for protesting or other opposition activity. The country’s most prominent opposition figures are now imprisoned or have fled the country.

Hniot said he was able to leave Serbia without problems.

“In Berlin I was able to to breathe a sigh of relief and try to comprehend that this nightmarish year is already behind me,” he said.

Belarusian opposition figures abroad campaigned for Hniot’s release. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to leave Belarus after she ran against Lukashenko in 2020, said the German Foreign Ministry and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen supported efforts to release Hniot.

The Belarusian human rights group Viasna says there are about 1,300 political prisoners in Belarus, including the group’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder Ales Bialiatski.