More than a year after his arrest, the prominent opposition activist Viktor Babariko was sentenced to 14 years in a prison camp in Belarus.
The Supreme Court in the capital Minsk sentenced 57-year-old Babariko on Tuesday for alleged money laundering, bribery and tax evasion.
Babariko had denied the allegations.
His trial is internationally criticized as a political staging in order to silence him.
Babariko was considered the most promising opponent of the ruler Alexander Lukashenko last year before the presidential election, but was arrested. The former banker is considered one of more than 400 political prisoners in the former Soviet republic. He was arrested with his son on June 18, 2020 on the way to the Central Electoral Commission when he was about to hand over signatures for his candidacy. Lukashenko had openly called on the authorities to take action against his challenger. The prosecutor had asked Babariko to be imprisoned for 15 years.
After the presidential election on August 9th, there were mass protests for months against Lukashenko, who had been criticized as the “last dictator in Europe”. Tens of thousands of people were temporarily arrested, hundreds injured and several killed. The EU no longer recognizes Lukashenko as president and has imposed numerous sanctions on the power apparatus because of the brutal actions taken against those who think differently.