A Belarusian activist believed to have been coerced to cooperate with Minsk's KGB security service was pardoned on Monday, weeks after he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Roman Protasevich ran the Nexta Telegram account that coordinated mass protests against President Alexander Lukashenko in 2020. He was arrested in 2021 after his Ryanair flight to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk. 

Earlier this month, a court in the Moscow-allied country sentenced the 28-year-old to eight years in a penal colony. He was kept under house arrest after the trial.

But on Monday, Belarusian state news agency Belta reported that Protasevich had been pardoned. 

"I have just signed appropriate documents confirming that I have been pardoned," Belta quoted Protasevich as saying. 

"I am incredibly grateful to the country and of course, to the president personally for such a decision," he said in a video released by Belta. 

"This is, of course, just great news."

After his arrest, Protasevich was believed to have been coerced by authorities into issuing apologetic statements on state television. 

When his trial began in February, he said in a video published by Belta that he was "fully guilty". 

Some in the exiled Belarusian opposition have accused him of collaborating with authorities. 

Little is known about how Protasevich was treated by security services.  

Protasevich's arrest shocked world aviation authorities. A Belarusian fighter jet forced his Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk. 

Nexta, a popular channel on YouTube and Telegram, played an active role in the 2020 protests, which erupted after Lukashenko was accused of rigging an election.

The platform was banned and declared a "terrorist organisation".