A Belarusian court on Monday sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison the main opponent, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who lives in exile, in a context of fierce repression orchestrated by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.
According to the state news agency Belta and the human rights organization Viasna, another famous opponent, Pavel Latouchko, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Three other people were sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Ms. Tikhanovskaya reacted quickly, vowing to continue her struggle and political activities after the announcement of her conviction in a trial which she described as a “farce”.
“Today, I don’t think about my own pain. I think of thousands of innocent people, detainees and those sentenced to real prison terms, ”she said on Twitter. “I won’t stop until each of them is freed.”
During this trial, which took place in an opaque manner, Ms. Tikhanovskaïa was targeted by a dozen charges, in particular that of “conspiracy to seize power in an unconstitutional manner”.
Last week, the prosecution requested 19 years in prison against the 40-year-old opponent and refugee in Lithuania.
The conviction of Ms. Tikhanovskaïa and the four other opponents is part of a context of accelerated repression in Belarus, a former Soviet republic ruled with an iron fist for three decades by Alexander Lukashenko.
On Friday, activist Ales Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize and figure of the democracy movement in Belarus, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Unlike Ms Tikhanovskaya, he is still in Belarus, where he has been imprisoned since 2021.
” Prank call “
In an interview with AFP in January, Ms. Tikhanovskaya called her trial a “farce” and “personal revenge” by Alexander Lukashenko against the one who shook his power in 2020.
The crackdown follows a historic protest movement in 2020 that erupted after Mr Lukashenko’s controversial re-election in a poll marred by massive fraud, observers say.
These protest actions were put down with thousands of arrests, cases of torture, the death of several demonstrators, heavy sentences and forced exiles.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, who ran for president in 2020 in place of her imprisoned husband Sergei Tikhanovski, had during the campaign gathered crowds across her country, raising hopes for change.
Forced into exile, the one who once presented herself as a simple stay-at-home mother is now the face of democratic forces in Belarus and the enemy of a regime whose brutal abuses she tirelessly denounces.
The husband of Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, a popular blogger who fiercely criticized Mr. Lukashenko, was sentenced in December 2021 to 18 years in prison, in particular for “organizing massive unrest” and “inciting hatred in society”.
According to the NGO Viasna, Belarus had 1,461 political prisoners on 1er March.
Westerners have taken several rounds of sanctions against Minsk for the crackdown on the 2020 protests, but the regime still enjoys Moscow’s unwavering support.
Belarus has agreed in return to serve as a rear base for Russian troops to attack Ukraine in February 2022. But the Belarusian army has not taken a direct part in the fighting so far.