"We are destined to win and we are going to win," Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa said on Wednesday (December 16th), receiving the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights, awarded in October to the democratic opposition in Belarus.

The former presidential candidate, a refugee in Lithuania, hailed the award as "a motivation", a "new start for Belarus".

She expressed the wish that "all Belarusians who are in prison or forced to live in exile can return home", during the ceremony which, due to the pandemic, took place in Brussels.

"The whole world knows what is happening in your country. We see your courage. We see the courage of women. We see your suffering. We see the untold abuse. We see the violence. Your aspiration and your determination to live on. in a democratic country inspire us ", declared the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, announcing moreover that a delegation of MEPs would visit Belarus in early 2021.

New round of sanctions

At the same time, the ambassadors of the 27 approved a new set of sanctions against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, adding more than thirty names of people and companies to their blacklist.

This third round of sanctions affecting 29 individuals and seven companies or organizations, whose identities are not yet known, will be effective with the publication of the new list scheduled for Thursday in the official journal of the EU.

"We have decided to proceed with a new series of sanctions in response to the brutality of the authorities (...). They will affect the economic activities of the country", assured the head of EU diplomacy, Josep in early December. Borrell, while previous sanctions have failed to end the crackdown.

As for the 55 people already on the list, including President Lukashenko and his son, their assets in the Union will be frozen and they will be banned from entering its territory.

The EU did not recognize the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko

During a meeting with the leading figure of Belarusian opponents, Josep Borrell again pleaded for "an end to the detentions and violence against peaceful demonstrators, the release of all political prisoners and those unjustly detained and the prosecution of them. persons who authorized and perpetrated violence and inhuman treatment ".

The EU does not recognize the result of the August 9 presidential election that Svetlana Tikhanovskaya says she won.

Supported by Moscow, Alexander Lukashenko refuses to leave power and has only mentioned vague constitutional reforms in an attempt to calm the protest.

The Sakharov Prize "for freedom of the mind" was awarded to ten opposition figures, including Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and the two women who campaigned alongside him, Maria Kolesnikova, now imprisoned, and Veronika Tsepkalo , in exile, as well as Nobel Laureate for Literature Svetlana Alexievich.

With AFP

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