Viewers Corner News correspondent in Berlin learnt that a court in Belarus has imprisoned opposition leader Sergei Tikhanovsky to 18 years in prison for instigating an unprecedented anti-authoritarian protest movement against dictatorial President Alexander Lukashenko last year. According to the report, the court found the 43-year-old Tikhanovsky guilty of organizing riots and inciting social hatred, among other crimes, and convicted him after trial behind closed doors at a prison centre in the southern city of Gomel. The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada have announced fresh sanctions against Belarus. Sergei Tikhanovsky’s wife, a self-exiled Belarus democratic champion, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has condemned the verdict. After her husband was sentenced, she commented on Twitter, stating that the Belarus dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, openly takes revenge on his strongest opponents. The 65-year-old prominent politician Mikola Statkevich was also sentenced to 14 years in prison as one of Tikhanovsky’s five co-defendants in the high-profile case. Mikola Statkevich ran against Lukashenko in the 2010 elections, but was found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison. He was forbidden from running in the 2020 election after being released in 2015. He was rearrested and has been in detention with Sergei Tikhanovsky since May 2020. Their trial, which began in June, was kept secret. Since enormous protests that erupted after the 2020 election, which the West regarded as unfair, dictator Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, has been cracking down on opponents. All of Lukashenko’s notable opponents have been imprisoned or fled the country. Sergei Tikhanovsky had planned to run against Lukashenko in the presidential election in Belarus in August 2020, but he was arrested and imprisoned before the poll. His wife, Tsikhanouskaya took his position in the elections and was largely regarded to have won the elections. Igor Losik (29 years old), a co-defendant in the case, was sentenced to 15 years in jail on Tuesday. He was jailed on suspicion of inciting riots through his popular Telegram channel. Also, blogger Vladimir Tsyganovich, as well as two activists (Artyom Sakov and Dmitry Popov) associated with Tikhanovsky are the other three co-defendants in the case. Vladimir Tsyganovich was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Artyom Sakov and Dmitry Popov were each sentenced to 16 years in prison. Tikhanovsky’s wife was compelled to flee Belarus to Lithuania after President Lukashenko initiated a crackdown in the aftermath of the referendum, which was regarded as unfair by the West. She gained recognition as Belarus’s main opposition leader from Western nations and has been fighting for reform in the country ever since. Maria Kolesnikova, another opposition leader, was sentenced by a Belarusian court to 11 years in jail in September for breaking national security and plotting to seize power. Viktor Babaryko, another opposition leader, was sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of fraud in July.
Source: Viewers Corner News.