Siarhei Tsikhanouski was charged with organizing mass unrest and inciting hatred after declaring his candidacy to run against current President Alexander Lukashenko in last year’s election. He was arrested two days after announcing his campaign, with Tsikhanouskaya running in his place and losing in an election that many critics say was rigged in Lukashenko’s favor. Tsikhanouski had already spent 20 months in prison before the sentencing, leaving behind his wife and two children.
“We will not stop and will continue the fight with the dictatorship in the center of Europe,” said Tsikhanouskaya. “I don’t have the right to tell my children that they won’t see their father for so many years, because I don’t believe it myself.”
Tsikhanouski was not the only person to be sentenced to lengthy prison sentences. Mikola Statkevich was another former presidential candidate who previously spent six years in prison, being sentenced this time to 14 years. Blogger Ihar Losik, who ended a hunger strike against his prosecution in March 2021, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The identities of the remaining activists have not been released.
The results of the August 2020 election triggered a months-long wave of unprecedented mass protests, the largest of which saw some 200,000 people taking to the streets of the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Lukashenko’s government unleashed a violent crackdown on the demonstrators, arresting more than 35,000 and brutally beating thousands.
Tsikhanouskaya fled the country to Lithuania a day after the vote under pressure from the authorities. Other key opposition figures have also left the country, while some have ended up behind bars.
In recent months, pressure has mounted on Belarus’ non-governmental organizations, activists and journalists, with the authorities regularly conducting mass raids and detentions of those they suspect of supporting the anti-government protests. The majority of independent media outlets and rights groups in Belarus have now been shut down.
Tsikhanouski’s trial was shrouded in secrecy, with court hearings held behind closed doors and lawyers bound by non-disclosure agreements.
U.S. ambassador to Belarus Julie Fisher said on Twitter that “it is clear whom the regime most fears.”
“The United States, alongside our partners, will continue efforts to secure the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski, Ihar Losik and all those facing unjust detention and vengeful verdicts,” she wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
