Belarus: 11 students heavily sentenced, searches continue
For months, the regime of Alexander Lukashenko imprisons opponents, journalists and activists at all costs to definitively put down the dispute arising from his re-election deemed fraudulent.
Here, a rally in Independence Square in Minsk, August 14, 2020. REUTERS / Vasily Fedosenko
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In Belarus, the courts on Friday sentenced eleven students and a professor to heavy prison sentences accused of having participated in the historic protest movement of 2020. President Alexander Lukashenko continues to muzzle all forms of opposition.
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According to the human rights NGO Viasna, ten students and a professor tried since May for participating in events "
seriously violating public order
" at their universities in Minsk were sentenced to two and a half years in prison, a eleventh two-year scoping student.
Expelled from their respective universities, all were qualified as “
political prisoners”
by Viasna.
The prosecution argued that
"the protests in universities aimed at a revision of the results of the presidential election so that it is not recognized by the European Union and the United States
".
Students have often been at the forefront of
protests in 2020,
and Amnesty International said in a report that several hundred of them were arrested and fined, and more than 150 expelled from their institutions.
Media and NGOs targeted
New illustration of the
repression
operated by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko against those who denounce for almost a year his re-election deemed fraudulent for a fifth term in August 2020: Radio Svoboda said Friday on the Telegram messaging that the police were at the home of his director, Valentin Jdanko, and that other of his reporters had been arrested after a search.
Radio Svoboda actively covered the protest movement of 2020.
The security services also carried out during the day a new wave of searches of at least 18 independent journalists, at least three of whom were arrested, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.
Searches were also reported at at least eight journalists from the opposition media Belsat, the homes of the parents of two other reporters having been searched in Brest (west).
"
One by one, the regime is destroying every media that dares to tell the truth about what is happening in Belarus,
" reacted opposition figure
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya
, who will travel to the United States from Sunday.
Last week, authorities blocked access to Nacha Niva, one of the main opposition media, and searched independent and regional media.
A dozen organizations including the main human rights groups in the country have also suffered a series of arrests and searches.
Ten employees of these structures are now detained, including the director of the NGO Viasna.
► See also: Belarus: wave of searches and arrests against NGOs
An "unacceptable repression"
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has denounced "
unacceptable repression
" and the European Union has protested against a new wave of pressure aimed at "
silencing all remaining dissenting voices
" .
Alexandre Loukachenko had called on Tuesday to "bring to justice" the "
dirty NGOs
" cultivating, according to him, "
terror
", during a meeting in Russia with his main ally, Russian President Vladimir Poutine.
In May, the authorities had already arrested an opposition journalist in exile,
Roman Protassevich
, by hijacking the airliner he was on board, sparking an international outcry.
To denounce the repression, the European Union, the United States and other Western countries have adopted
sanctions
against Belarusian officials and key economic sectors.
(With
AFP
)
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Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko
Human rights
Media
NGO