The Council of the European Union has decided to exclude 24 Belarusian citizens from the list of persons regarding whom sanctions apply, the Official Journal of the EU said.

"The Council believes that 24 persons should be removed from the list of persons and organizations to whom restriction measures apply," the publication said.

In particular, Natalia Petkevich (former aide to the Belarusian president), Leonid Maltsev (chairman of the State Border Committee), Gennady Nevyglas (former presidential administration head), Anatoly Rubinov (former chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly), Yevgeny Poluden (former deputy head of the interior ministry), Vladimir Poluyan (minister for tax and duties), Alexei Vasilyev (first deputy chairman of state property committee), Yury Prokopov (former TV host of the Belarus 1 TV channel), Sergei Ablaimeko (rector of the Belarusian State University), Tamara Alpeyeva (rector of the International Humanitarian Economic Institute), Gennady Podgaysky (director of the Minsk State Polytechnic College) and Mikhail Batura (rector of the Belarusian State University of Information and Radio Electronics) have been excluded from the list.

Judges Andrei Baranovsky, Yelena Ananich, Olga Gusakova, Nikolai Bolonev, Yelena Chernyak, Zhanna Dubinina, Natalia Kuznetsova, Yelena Lapteva, Natalya Merkul, Lidia Telitsa, Natalia Varenik and Valentina Zenkevich were excluded from the EU sanctions list as well.

It has been reported that the Council of the EU issued a resolution extending the sanctions against Belarus until October 31, 2015. This decision of the Council of the EU is motivated by the fact "that not all political prisoners were released and rehabilitated, and that compliance with human rights, principles of a law-ruled state and democratic society has not improved in Belarus."