UK-Belarus dual citizen Julia Fenner, who is the wife of a British diplomat, has been freed from prison by Belarus as part of a broader release agreed with the US.

She had been given a long jail term last month after being detained on the border as she entered Belarus in March 2024.

UK Europe Minister Stephen Doughty said “it is great news that a British national has been brought home”.

Fifty-two prisoners were freed from Belarus on Thursday as part of an agreement between US President Donald Trump and authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

In exchange for the release of political prisoners, the US said it would relieve some sanctions on Belarusian airline Belavia, allowing the carrier to buy parts for its planes.

Stephen Doughty called the release “a significant breakthrough” and thanked the US for “substantial diplomatic efforts to secure this outcome”.

The prisoners released included trade union leaders, journalists and activists, but more than 1,000 political prisoners remain in jail in Belarus.

Julia Fenner had previously worked at the British embassy in Minsk before marrying British diplomat Martin Fenner, according to human rights group Charter 97. Martin Fenner was deputy head of mission in Minsk for four years in the early 2000s.

Another rights group, Spring 96, recognised Mrs Fenner as a political prisoner who had been imprisoned in a penal colony.

Although the reason for Belarus charging her was never explained, she was accused under two articles of the criminal code, for active participation in actions that grossly violate public order and assistance to extremist activity.

All opposition has been quashed by Belarusian authoritarian leader Lukashenko, 71, who has been in power since 1994.

He described the release of the 52 prisoners as a humanitarian gesture, after meeting Donald Trump’s special envoy John Coale in the capital Minsk on Thursday.

In a news conference on Friday, Belarus’s exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya thanked the US president for securing the prisoners’ release.

An estimated 1,300 political prisoners remain in jail in Belarus, but Tikhanovskaya said the release of the 52 prisoners on Thursday was a step in the right direction.

“What happened yesterday wasn’t a real freedom,” she warned. “It was forced deportation”.

The opposition leader added that she is “very worried about the fate of Mikola Statkevich” – a veteran dissident who refused to leave Belarus yesterday and cross into Lithuania.

Tikhanovskaya yesterday posted pictures online appearing to show 69-year-old Mr Statkevich sitting in no man’s land at the border.

Statkevich had stood against Lukashenko in 2010 presidential elections and had been in jail for five years when he was released.

Tikhanovskaya said his whereabouts is now unknown but added “everyone who is released has the right to choose either to stay or to leave”.

Spring 96 said Mr Statkevich “wants to be with his people under any conditions” and adds “he is going to leave only when Belarus is free from Lukashenko”.

Lukashenko praised the US for taking “a very constructive stance on the so-called political prisoners”, according to Belarusian state-owned news agency Belta.

“We do not need political prisoners or any other prisoners,” he was quoted as saying.

Many of those still in detention were arrested during a brutal crackdown in 2020, when protests broke out against a presidential election widely condemned as rigged.

Lukashenko has long referred to Vladimir Putin as his “elder brother” and the Russian leader helped him during the 2020 protests.

In February 2022, Putin used Belarusian territory to launch his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and on Friday the two countries began five days of joint major military exercises.

Nato members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which all share a border with Belarus, are on high alert because of the “Zapad-2025” drills. Poland has closed its borders with Belarus and Latvia has shut part of its airspace.