Tichanowskaya calls for more action for political prisoners in Belarus The European Commission enters into partnership with Mauritania on migration

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has called on the international community to do more to support political prisoners in her home country. “We must take action to prevent further tragedies. The torture of people in prisons must stop,” she said in Vilnius on Friday, according to the BNS agency.

According to Tikhanovskaya, who was driven into exile by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, five political prisoners have already died in prisons in recent years. The number of victims will increase in the future. “People are being killed slowly in prisons,” she said.

Tikhanovskaya and her colleagues had previously organized a protest in front of the Belarusian embassy in Vilnius to draw attention to their jailed colleagues. According to estimates by the Belarusian opposition, there are around 1,500 political prisoners in Lithuania’s authoritarian neighbor.

Among them is Tichanowskaya’s husband Sergei Tichanowski. “It’s been a year since I last heard from my husband. It has been quiet since then.” There has also been no contact for a year with other well-known imprisoned opposition figures, such as Viktor Babariko or Maria Kolesnikova.

Tichanovsky originally wanted to run against ruler Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential election on August 9, 2020, but was arrested months before the vote. He was replaced by his wife Svetlana, who is considered by many to be the real winner of the elections, which were widely considered fraudulent.

Human rights activists accuse Lukashenko’s power apparatus of crimes against humanity. There have been repeated reports of mistreatment of prisoners and their disappearances.

(sda/dpa)