Belarus sentences prominent opposition figure to 11 years in prison

justice Belarus He condemned, on Monday (6), one of the main opposition figures in the country, Maria Kolesnikova, who led the protests against the president Alexander Lukashenko In 2020, she will be sentenced to 11 years in prison for undermining national security.

She and her lawyer, Maxim Zanak, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison, were also accused of conspiring to seize power and advocating actions that threaten national security.

The verdicts were announced by the team of Victor Paparico, another detained opponent for whom Kolesnikova worked.

Lukashenko is often referred to as Europe’s last dictatorIt has controlled Belarus since 1994, when the Soviet Union fell.

Arrest of opponents before trial

The two opponents have been in detention for 11 months, and at the beginning of August they began to stand trial in a closed case, about which little information was revealed.

Kolesnikova, 39, was one of three women at the head of the protest movement against Lukashenko, along with presidential candidate Svetlana Tikanovskaya, and Veronika Tsypkalo.

Below is a video from August 2021 of a Belarusian activist who was found dead.

Belarusian activist found dead in Ukraine

Mobilization began in August 2020 to protest the re-election of Lukashenko – which the opposition claims was obtained through fraud – who has been in power since 1994.

The regime violently suppressed the historical movement, with thousands of arrests, forced exile, and the closure of political organizations, the media, and NGOs.

See the August 2020 report on the protests in Belarus.