Nikolai Avtukhovich, of the group, sentenced to 25 years, says human rights NGO Viasna
A Belarusian court handed down sentences ranging from two and a half to 25 years to a dozen opposition activists accused of terrorism and treason, human rights NGO Viasna said.
Nikolai Avtukhovich, the leader of the militant group, had been sentenced to 25 years, Viasna said on Telegram, in one of the harshest sentences handed down in the lonely country.
Avtukhovich has been charged with several crimes, in addition to terrorism, attempted coup and treason, the human rights organization said.
Viasna’s founder, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Ales Bialiatski, jailed in Belarus in 2021.
Avtukhovich and his organization are accused of setting fire to a car and a police area in the western Belarusian city of Grodno in October 2020. The Grodno court said they also blew up a car and were planning additional attacks.
Nine of the activists were sentenced to between 15 and 20 years in prison, in addition to Orthodox priest Sergei Rezanovich, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison. His wife, sentenced to 15 years.
The court also imprisoned an activist for six years and one month and sentenced him to two years and six months in prison.
In 2020, Belarusians joined historic protests against the re-election of strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet country with an iron fist for nearly 3 decades.
Thousands of activists were arrested during the crackdown and the main leaders of the opposition movement are now imprisoned or in exile. Among them is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a political novice who opposed Lukashenko in the August 2020 elections instead of her jailed husband.
Many independent media and NGOs have been banned or closed, and their leaders have been forced to flee.