By Yuras Karmanau
BERLIN (AP) --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.
Dodgers’ World Series-ending win averages 18.6 million; series averages 15.81 million for 5 games
The Dodgers' 7-6 victory over the Yankees in Game 5 for their eighth World Series title and second in five years averaged 18.6 million viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes and streaming, according to Nielsen.
That is the most-watched game in the Fall Classic since Game 7 in 2019 when the Washington Nationals' victory over the Houston Astros averaged 23.22 million.
The series averaged 15.81 million, its best performance since 2017 when Houston's victory over the Dodgers in seven games averaged 18.93 million.
Its also quite a turnaround from last year, when the Texas Rangers;' title over the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games averaged a record-low 9.11 million.
The audience Wednesday peaked at 21.27 million from 11:15-11:30 p.m. EDT.
The game had a 21.1 rating and 55 share in Los Angeles and 14.8 rating and 39 share in New York.
The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in. The share refers to a percentage of the audience viewing it at the time.
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