Sentenced to 15 years in prison, the protester vows to continue his fight

A Belarusian court on Monday sentenced a key enemy in hiding to fifteen years in prison. Svetlana Tikanovskaya, exiled in the wake of relentless repression orchestrated by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. Another protester, Pavel Ladochko, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, according to state news agency Belda and human rights organization Vyasna. Ms Tikhanovskaya quickly responded, vowing to continue her campaign and her political activities after the conviction was announced in a trial she described as a “farce”.

“Today I don’t think about my own pain. I am thinking of the thousands of innocent people, prisoners and those sentenced to actual imprisonment,” he tweeted. “I will not stop until every one of them is freed”.

During this investigation, which took place in an opaque manner, Mrs. Tikanovskaya was targeted with a dozen charges, most notably “conspiracy to seize power unconstitutionally”. Last week, the prosecution requested a 19-year prison sentence against the 40-year-old enemy and refugee in Lithuania.

The sentencing of Ms Tikanovskaya and four other opponents is part of an intensified crackdown in Belarus, the former Soviet republic ruled with an iron fist for three decades by Alexander Lukashenko. Friday, activist Ales Bialiatsky, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize and figure in the Belarusian democracy movement, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.. Unlike Ms Tikanovskaya, he is still in Belarus, where he has been imprisoned since 2021.

“Naughty Call”

In an interview with AFP in January, Ms Tikanovskaya called her trial a “mockery” and “personal vendetta” by Alexander Lukashenko against his 2020 coup. The crackdown follows the movement of the historic protest in 2020. Mr Lukashenko’s controversial re-election According to observers, there has been massive fraud in a poll. These protests were met with thousands of arrests, torture cases, the death of many demonstrators, harsh punishments and forced deportations.

Svetlana Tikanovskaya, who is running for president in 2020, and her husband, Sergei Tikanovsky, rallied across his country during the campaign to raise hopes for change. Forced into exile, the once self-proclaimed stay-at-home mother is now the face of democratic forces in Belarus and an opponent of a regime whose brutal abuses she relentlessly denounces.

Mr. In December 2021, the husband of popular blogger Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, who was a vocal critic of Lukashenko, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, specifically for “organizing massive disturbances” and “inciting hatred in society”. According to the NGO Vyasna, there were 1,461 political prisoners in Belarus on March 1.

Westerners have taken several rounds of sanctions against Minsk to quell the 2020 protests, but the regime still enjoys Moscow’s unwavering support. Belarus agreed in return to act as a rear base for Russian troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022. But the Belarusian army has not yet taken direct part in the fighting.

(AFP)Show comments