Activist Sergei Tikhanovski, opponent of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. According to information from the Belarusian state agency, the charges included “organizing mass rebellions” and inciting social hostility.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaia, Serguei’s wife and also an activist, reported on Twitter that five other defendants were sentenced to between 14 and 16 years in prison. Tikhanovski was arrested by the Belarus regime shortly after announcing that he would run for president in May 2020. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya assumed the candidacy but lost to Lukashenko in a contested election.
“The dictator publicly takes revenge on his strongest opponents. While hiding political prisoners in closed trials, he hopes to continue the crackdown in silence. But the whole world watches. We will not stop,” wrote Tikhanovskaya.
“The very existence of these people (activists) is a crime for the regime. They are repressed by the desire to live in a free Belarus,” he added.
Egils Levits, president of Latvia, criticized the condemnations on Twitter. “Stay strong, Svetlana Tikhanovskaia and the families of others sentenced to long prison terms by the regime of tyrant Alexander Lukashenko. As the Latvian dissident Gunārs Astra said in court in 1983, ‘This time will disappear, like a nightmare,’” he wrote.
Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, also condemned the sentences and called for “the immediate and unconditional release (of those convicted) and all 900+ political prisoners held by the Lukashenko regime”.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/opponent-of-belarusian-dictator-sentenced-to-18-years-in-prison/
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