The 52 political prisoners freed in Belarus on Thursday knew they were going to be released and were “very happy” to return to their lives, John Coale, President Donald Trump’s deputy envoy to Ukraine, told Newsmax.
“Yes, this group did know,” Coale said in a phone interview with Newsmax’s Greta Van Susteren, his wife, on her program, “The Record With Greta Van Susteren.” “This group was told the night before, so they knew.”
Another 14 prisoners, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a key dissident figure and the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, were released in June following Coale’s discussions in Minsk with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Coale told Van Susteren that, unlike with the current release, those 14 prisoners thought they were going to be executed.
Among those released Thursday were six Lithuanians, two Latvians, two Poles, two Germans, one French national, and one U.K. national, according to the Belarusian presidency’s press service.
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Friday thanked Trump for helping secure the prisoners’ release from her home country.
Earlier Thursday, Coale announced that Washington had lifted sanctions on Belarus’ national air carrier, Belavia, as part of the prisoner release.
He told Newsmax there were emotional scenes as he personally delivered the news to the freed prisoners. “I went on each bus, announced that we were freeing them,” he said. “They were free. Now they can go home, start their lives, but they are free. They’re out of prison. They were very happy.”
He added that not all those who were freed were detained solely for political opposition, as “there were various different reasons they were in the prison, but that was some of it.”
Pressed on why Lukashenko agreed to release 68 prisoners in total across three rounds of talks, Coale pointed to Trump’s broader diplomatic strategy.
“It’s always been President Trump’s goal to have relationships with these countries rather than wait around for them to do things we hope they will do,” he said. “So the more we talk to them, I think the closer we get to President Trump’s goal of having a good relationship, which actually means less war.”
Coale also offered a personal glimpse into his conversations with Lukashenko. “He’s a fun guy. We joke around, but we talk serious business. My job is to get these people free. So I try everything I can to maintain the relationship with Lukashenko. And it works.”
That relationship, Coale noted, gives Trump indirect channels to global leaders.
“He has a direct line to Putin. They’ve been friends for 30 years. So we talk about the war, how to stop the war. He relays messages to President [Vladimir] Putin. He’s also friends with Xi [Jinping] of China. So he’s a good person to know.”
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