AFP

MINSK TWO opponents of Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko returned home in triumph to Minsk on Sunday after winning early release from jail in what supporters hailed as the result of EU pressure on his regime.

Former diplomat Andrei Sannikov, the most prominent opposition figure imprisoned in Lukashenko’s crackdown on the opposition after 2010 elections, was released from his jail in the northeastern city of Vitebsk.

Meanwhile, Sannikov’s former aide and fellow activist Dmitry Bondarenko was also released from the eastern city of Mogilev. Both had made requests for pardons to Lukashenko, which the authoritarian president finally approved.

The high-profile releases come as the European Union piles pressure on Minsk to release all political prisoners after hitting the regime with a range of sanctions targeting top officials and companies.

Around 100 supporters shouted “Long live Belarus!” and “Our President!” as Sannikov arrived outside Minsk’s central railway station in the early morning in a car from Vitebsk.

“Thank you all for your support and solidarity. I believe that this solidarity and support not only got me released but also saved me,” said Sannikov, clutching bouquets of roses handed by supporters.

“It was this that prompted international solidarity. And now we have to get other political prisoners released.

This is the main thing,” he said before heading to a reunion with his wife Irina and their four-year-old son Danik.

Sannikov, a former deputy foreign minister, was the most prominent candidate to run against Lukashenko in controversial December 2010 polls which the strongman swept with almost 80 percent of the vote.

He was arrested when riot police cracked down on a mass demonstration protesting alleged election rigging in the polls by Lukashenko, who has now been in power for almost 18 years.

Sannikov was sentenced in May last year to five years in prison on charges of organising mass disturbances.

Bondarenko had been sentenced to two years in jail.

“I will continue my political activity so that Belarus becomes a free European country,” Bondarenko said after arriving back in Minsk where he was met by supporters including Sannikov.