The move comes a week after Lukashenko accused Ukraine of planning an attack on its former Soviet neighbor and announced plans for a joint deployment of troops with Moscow for “defensive” purposes.
The criminal sentences continue a crackdown on the opposition and the media that began in earnest in 2020 after Lukashenko claimed a sixth term in contested elections that sparked mass protests.
The leader of an activist group, Avtukhovich, was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison, one of the harshest sentences recently handed down in the lonely country.
Avtukhovich and his organization are accused of setting fire to a car and a police space in the western Belarusian city of Grodno in 2020.
Nine of the activists were sentenced to between 15 and 20 years in prison, in addition to Orthodox priest Sergei Rezanovich who was imprisoned for 16 years.
The founder of the rights organization Viasna and co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Ales Bialiatski imprisoned in July 2021.
He was arrested for tax evasion, a move his fellow dissidents noted as a thinly veiled attempt to silence him.
– SERGEI TIKHANOVSKY –
Tikhanovsky, a charismatic YouTube blogger, boosted the opposition when he ran for president in an attempt to oust Lukashenko.
But the Belarusian government cut short his crusade by arresting him for disturbing public order before the August 2020 vote and then keeping him imprisoned.
Tikhanovsky’s wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, ran instead.
In December 2021, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for organizing riots, inciting social hatred and other charges.
-VIKTOR BABARYKO-
Former banker Babaryko, one of Belarus’ most popular politicians, arrested and charged with fraud as he prepared to announce his candidacy for president in June 2020.
In July 2021, he was sentenced to 14 years in a maximum security facility for taking bribes and laundering cash while running the Belarusian branch of a bank owned by Russian power giant Gazprom.
It also ordered several million euros to be paid in damages.
-MIKOLA STATKEVICH-
Veteran opposition politician Statkevich was arrested on his way to an opposition rally in 2020 and tried behind closed doors with Tikhanovsky.
Statkevich had already spent five years behind bars, most of them in solitary confinement, after a failed presidential bid against Lukashenko in 2010.
– PAVEL SEVERINETS –
Severinets, co-chair of Belarus’ Christian Democratic party, arrested in June 2020 after picketing opposition candidates.
In May 2021, a Minsk court sentenced him to seven years in prison for “organizing mass riots” despite being detained in the massive protests that followed Lukashenko’s disputed victory.
-MARIA KOLESNIKOVA-
In September 2021, a Belarusian court sentenced one of the 3 protest leaders, Maria Kolesnikova, to 11 years in prison for endangering national security and plotting to seize power.
The former flutist, who refused to go into exile, led the post-election protests alongside Tikhanovskaya and Veronika Tsepkalo, who fled abroad.
– MAXIM ZNAK –
Convicted with Kolesnikova lawyer and activist Maxim Znak, who was sentenced to 10 years.
– Journalists’ bars –
Journalists covering the anti-Lukashenko protests also stepped up the pressure, with several of them sentenced to lengthy criminal sentences.
The most infamous case was the arrest of opposition blogger Roman Protasevich. His Ryanair flight intercepted via a fighter jet and forced to land in Minsk.
Amid the foreign outrage, Protasevich gave the impression in videos of “confessions” that his supporters say were recorded under duress. He was then placed under space arrest.
– DARIA CHULTSOVA, KATERINA BAKHVALOVA –
In February 2021, Katerina Bakhvalova and Daria Chultsova, two bloodhounds from the opposition channel Belsat, were sentenced to two years for covering a 2020 protest.
In July this year, Bakhvalova was sentenced to another 8 years in prison for “treason to the state. “
In May 2021, the popular news site Tut. by was blocked and several of its workers arrested for tax fraud.
Independent news firm Nasha Niva suffered a similar fate in July 2021, while regional media offices were raided and detained.
Tikhanovskaya, who has become the face of mass protests against Lukashenko following her husband’s imprisonment, was forced into exile in Lithuania two days after disputed 2020 elections.
A political novice, she ran for her husband’s seat, claiming victory at the polls and calling on Lukashenko to admit defeat.
Tsepkalo, whose husband was forced into exile after trying to oppose Lukashenko, also had to flee the country. They now live in Poland.
Lawyer Kovalkova also had to flee to Poland. She says she was arrested, threatened through the KGB intelligence firm and then released at the Polish border.
Pavel Latushko, a former opposition culture minister, also took refuge in Warsaw.
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