Belarus court jails leading opposition figure Sergei Tikhanovsky for 18 years

Tikhanovksy announced plans to run against Lukashenko before the August 2020 elections but he was arrested, jailed and barred from running, prompting his wife Svetlana, to take his place in an opposition alliance with two other women, Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo.

Kolesnikova was jailed for 11 years in September. Another of Lukashenko’s opposition rivals Viktor Babariko was jailed for 14 years in July.

There has been tough political crackdown since the election that has seen 920 political prisoners jailed, according to Belarusian rights group Viasna. People have been arrested for a tweet or for displaying the red and white flag adopted by the opposition.

Street protests broke out after Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, was declared the winner in the elections, in results rejected by the opposition. Facing the strongest challenge to his rule to date, he launched a brutal crackdown, which eventually succeeded in crushing the protests. Thousands of Belarusians have fled into exile.

After the sentence for her husband was handed down, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya tweeted that the Belarusian opposition would not give up their struggle.

“The dictator publicly takes revenge on his strongest opponents,” Tikhanovskaya tweeted. “While hiding the political prisoners in closed trials, he hopes to continue repressions in silence. But the whole world watches. We won‘t stop.”

Tikhanovskaya was forced to leave Belarus in 2020 after leading the protests over the election result. Her ally, Tsepkalo, also fled, fearing arrest.

The election was condemned as fraudulent by the U.S. State Department and European Union. Tikhanovskaya, who ran for office on a platform that called for free elections, is recognized in Europe and the United States as the winner.

The court also sentenced another popular blogger Ihar Losik to 15 years prison. Four others were tried in the same hearing, all of whom were handed long sentences: former presidential candidate Nikolai Statkevich who was given 14 years; and former opposition activists, Vladimir Tsyganovich, 15 years; Artyom Sakov, 16 years and Dmitry Popov, 16 years.

Franak Viacorka, senior adviser to Tikhanovskaya, said the hefty sentences were “just numbers.”

“We’ll release them,” he said in a tweet. “For 173 days, the regime ran a closed trial, even the relatives weren’t allowed in the courtroom.”

He said the trial was closed “because it recognizes how powerful these people are.” He said Lukashenko was “scared of all of them, even when they are behind bars.”