TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian investigators have a photo of an opposition politician shaking hands with former U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as evidence in a robbers case similar to mass protests after Belarus’ disputed 2020 presidential election.
Belarus’ investigative commission on Friday released a photo of Andrey Dzmitryeu, who ran for election in opposition to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and now faces up to 4 years in prison for his involvement in the protests. In a statement, he said the photo with Clinton “could imply that their activities were coordinated from abroad. “
Dzmitryeu, a 41-year-old activist and leader of the opposition movement Tell the Truth, arrested by security forces on Wednesday and charged with “organizing riots. “He alleged that participants in the 2020 protests were tortured and humiliated there.
The investigative committee did not specify when or in which cases Dzmitryeu and Clinton’s photo was taken, but said the politician had “crossed the border into the state of Belarus 599 times, adding up to 33 after 2020. “
The Belarusian opposition and Western countries denounced that the 2020 elections, which gave the mandate to Lukashenko, were rigged. The Minsk authorities responded to the protests with a major crackdown in which more than 35,000 people were arrested and thousands beaten by police. Dozens of media outlets and non-governmental organizations were also shut down.
According to official information from the Belarusian elections, Dzmitryeu came in fourth with 1. 2% of the vote, while Lukashenko won more than 80%. During the election campaign, Dzmitryeu continuously expressed his support for opposition figures who were banned from running.
According to Belarus’ human rights watchdog, Viasna, there were 1,445 political prisoners in the Eastern European country at the beginning of January. Opposition leader Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is the real winner of the 2020 election, condemned Dzmitryeu’s arrest, saying in a Twitter post that “On average, another 17 people are detained every day in Belarus. “
“I am alarmed by the arrest of the Belarusian presidential candidate,” Tsikhanouskaya, who now lives in exile in Lithuania, said on social media. “The dictator is busy taking revenge on his real or imaginary warring parties, even moderate politicians like Andrey Dzmitrieu. “
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