The Minsk City Court sentenced the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, to 15 years in prison in absentia.
This was reported by the local publication BelTA.
Another oppositionist, Paval Latushko, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. They were found guilty:
- in a conspiracy to seize state power in an unconstitutional way;
- creating an extremist formation and leading such formations;
- public calls to seize state power and take other actions aimed at harming the national security of Belarus;
- intentional actions aimed at awakening other social enmity and enmity based on a different social affiliation.
This refers to protests against the falsification of the results of the 2020 presidential election. Tsikhanouskaya and Latushko are currently hiding from the Belarusian authorities in Lithuania.
- In 2019, Tsikhanouskayaʼs husband Siarhey wanted to run for president, but he was detained and arrested. Since the spring of 2020, Tsikhanovskiy has been in prison, and his wife Sviatlana, who after the election moved to Lithuania and became the face and leader of the Belarusian opposition, ran for the presidency of Belarus.
- On March 3, 2023, a court in Belarus decided to imprison the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, head of the human rights center "Vyasna" Ales Beliatskyi for 10 years in a penal colony.