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December 14, 2021A court in Belarus sentenced Sergei Tikhanovsky, husband of opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, to 18 years in prison.
Echo of Moscow reports it.
The Gomel Court sentenced Tikhanovsky after the trial took place inside the SIZO-3 pre-trial detention prison, behind closed doors.
Tikhanovsky had planned to run in the presidential election in Belarus last year but instead ended up behind bars.
He was charged with four counts, including organizing riots.
Following a closed-door trial that lasted months in a detention center in the city of Gomel, the court found Tikhanovsky guilty of organizing riots and inciting social hatred, writes the state daily Sovetskaya Belarus. One of the other five defendants tried alongside Tikhanovsky, 65-year-old Mikola Statkevich, was sentenced to 14 years. Statkevich ran against Lukashenko in the 2010 elections but was sentenced to six years. Released in 2015, he was barred from running in the 2020 presidential elections. Both Tikhanovsky and Statkevich had been under arrest since May 2020. Igor Losik, accused of using his popular Telegram channel to incite a riot, and blogger Vladimir Tsyganovich were sentenced to 15 years. Artyom Sakov and Dmitry Popov, two activists close to Tikhanovsky,they were sentenced to 16 years.
Tikhanovskaya: my husband's sentence is revenge
"My husband was sentenced to 18 years in prison. The dictator publicly takes revenge on his strongest opponents. While hiding political prisoners in closed trials, he hopes to continue the repression in silence. But the whole world is watching. We will not stop. " Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, former presidential candidate and wife of the leader of the Belarusian opposition Serghei Tikhanovsky, writes on Twitter.
The EU condemns the "unfounded sentences of opponents"
The European Union condemns the "groundless and harsh" sentences handed down to six political prisoners in Belarus. This is what the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell underlined "strongly condemning the continuous and flagrant violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms carried out by the Minsk regime".
Use: Lukashenko put an end to the crackdown
The United States "condemns today's politically motivated convictions against members of the Belarusian opposition in judicial proceedings that do not comply with the rule of law".
This was stated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.
"We reiterate our call to the Lukashenko regime to end the repression of members of civil society, independent media, political opposition, athletes, students, legal professionals and other Belarusians," added the Secretary of State. .