Opposition leader sentenced to 18 years in prison in Belarus

A Belarusian opposition leader was convicted on Tuesday of organizing mass unrest and inciting social hatred and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Large-scale protests took place in Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko was elected to his sixth term as president of Belarus in August 2020 in an election outcome many considered rigged, according to The New York Times.

Since those protests, thousands of people — including other opposition leaders, protesters and Belarusians who consume news from independent outlets — have been detained under Lukashenko’s administration, the Times reported.

The opposition leader convicted Tuesday, Sergei Tikhanovsky, ran against Lukashenko in the election, but was arrested before the vote took place, per the Times.

Just before the verdict was announced, Tikhanovsky’s wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who took over the opposition movement following his arrest and is currently leading it from exile in Lithuania, released a statement saying she would “continue to defend the person I love, who has become a leader for millions of Belarusians,” the newspaper reported. 

“I will try to do something very difficult, perhaps impossible, in order to bring closer the moment when we will see him in the new Belarus,” she added. 

Tikhanovsky was on trial with five other defendants, who received prison terms ranging from 14 to 16 years in length, according to the Times. Nikolai Statkevich, who opposed Lukashenko in the 2010 election, was one of the other defendants.

Another presidential candidate who ran against Lukashenko, Viktor Babariko, was leading the polls in the 2020 race before being arrested and convicted on corruption charges in advance of the vote.

Maria Kolesnikova, a prominent opposition leader who played a key role in the post-election protests, was also previously convicted, according to the Times. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison in September.

An estimated 900 people are currently being held as political prisoners in Belarus. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for their release as the U.S. and international allies imposed additional sanctions against the country in response to human rights abuses.