Belarus opposition leader Tikhanovsky jailed for 18 years

Sergei Tikhanovsky being escorted before the verdict in his trial in Gomel yesterday. (AFP)

A court in Belarus yesterday sentenced opposition leader Sergei Tikhanovsky to nearly two decades behind bars after he galvanised an unprecedented protest movement against strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko last year.Tikhanovsky, a charismatic 43-year-old YouTube blogger, last spring launched a presidential campaign against Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet country with an iron grip since 1994.While Belarusian authorities stopped Tikhanovsky’s campaign short — arresting him on charges of violating public order ahead of the August 2020 vote and keeping him in detention since — the protest movement he triggered eventually swelled to tens of thousands of people.Yesterday, following a months-long trial behind closed doors, a court found Tikhanovsky guilty of organising riots, inciting social hatred and other charges and sentenced him to 18 years in prison, state newspaper Sovetskaya Belarus reported. His wife Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who became opposition leader in his stead, told AFP she will not “cry” over the prison term and instead focus on her efforts to push the EU to put more pressure on Lukashenko. The fact Tikhanovsky was given the maximum term possible, she said, proved that “my husband — a brave, wonderful person — became a personal enemy for Lukashenko”.She earlier said the sentence was “revenge” by Lukashenko.Western countries denounced the sentences. An EU spokesman called the verdict “part of the ongoing brutal and systemic repression” in Belarus.“Neither these individuals, not the Belarusian people, warrant such harsh repression,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.Meanwhile Germany’s new foreign minister Annalena Baerbock called the verdicts “scandalous.” Tikhanovskaya, who was a political novice and stay-at-home mother at the time of her husband’s arrest, took his place on the ballot and is widely believed to have won the August 2020 vote, claimed by Lukashenko as a victory.But she was forced to flee the country soon after, when Lukashenko launched a vicious crackdown on the post-vote protests against his rule that saw hundreds of people jailed and many more leave the country.