Belarus on Monday sentenced exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya to 15 years in prison for spearheading historic protests against the ex-Soviet country's leader, state-run news agency Belta reported.

Tikhanovskaya, who was forced to flee to neighbouring EU-member state Lithuania after the protests sparked by a disputed presidential election in 2020, was sentenced in absentia on charges of high treason and "conspiracy to seize power."

She was sentenced alongside Pavel Latushko, a former Belarusian diplomat and culture minister turned opposition leader, who was handed an 18-year jail term, also in absentia.

The charges stem from massive anti-government demonstrations that broke out against Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko who claimed he had won a sixth presidential term.

Lukashenko, who has been in power for nearly three decades, is a key ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The sentences came after Minsk on Friday handed a 10-year prison term to Nobel Prize winning rights activist Ales Bialiatski, a move that drew sweeping international condemnation.

Tikhanovskaya 'won't stop' activism despite verdict 

Tikhanovskaya said Monday she would continue to advocate for political prisoners in the authoritarian country.

"Today I don't think about my own sentence. I think about thousands of innocents, (people) detained and sentenced to real prison terms. I won't stop until each of them is released," she said on social media after she was sentenced in absentia by a Belarus court. 

 

                

 

                

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