Many Belarusians see her as the real winner in the 2020 vote. Tichanovskaya, who fled into exile, is now being sentenced to 15 years in prison. The accusation of the Lukashenko regime: She wanted to seize power.
The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for her role in anti-government protests in her homeland. According to the state news agency Belta, Tichanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania, was found guilty in absentia of high treason and "conspiracy to seize power". The 40-year-old immediately announced that she would continue her political struggle.
Tichanovskaya ran in the summer of 2020 in the presidential elections in the former Soviet republic against longtime ruler Alexander Lukashenko. After his alleged re-election, which was not recognized by the West, Tichanovskaya denounced election fraud and claimed victory for herself. The authoritarian head of state violently suppressed mass protests after the election. Thousands of people were arrested or fled abroad, including Tichanovskaya. In addition to the 40-year-old, who her supporters see as the real election winner, the former diplomat and culture minister Pavel Latuschko was also sentenced in absentia to 18 years in prison, and three other activists received 12-year prison terms each.
Tichanovskaya is seen as the face of the Belarusian opposition, and she regularly denounces the government's ongoing attacks. In a first reaction to her conviction, she announced that she would continue to support all political prisoners in her home country. "I will not stop until every one of them is released," she explained to the online networks. Already in January, Tichanovskaya had described her trial as a "farce" and "personal revenge" by Lukashenko. Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics spoke of a "mock court" and "abuse of justice" by the "illegitimate Lukashenko regime".
Among the leading activists in detention in Belarus are Tihanosvakhaya's husband Sergei Tikhanovsky and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Byalyatsky. A court in Minsk had sentenced the 60-year-old co-founder of the civil rights organization Vyazna, who had been in prison since 2021, to another ten years in prison on Friday. As of March 1, Vyazna counted a total of 1,461 political prisoners in Belarus. Lukashenko has ruled for almost three decades. He is a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
