Belarus: Twelve years in prison for critics of Lukashenko

In the ex-Soviet Republic of Belarus, the city court in Minsk has sentenced two prominent opponents of ruler Alexander Lukashenko to 12 years each in prison.

The controversial sentences were pronounced on Friday against the editor-in-chief Marina Zolotova (45) and the director Lyudmila Chekina (49) of the now closed internet news portal tut.by. Read by the majority of Internet users in Belarus until 2020, the independent medium actively reported on the massive protests against Lukashenko’s continued presidency.

The ruler Lukashenko not only used violence to disperse protests against his claimed election victory. He also had hundreds of his opponents imprisoned. Since then, many have been sentenced to long prison terms in closed trials without evidence. Human rights activists accuse the criminal justice system of completely arbitrary rulings under Lukashenko, who has been criticized as “Europe’s last dictator”.

Zolotova, 45, was found guilty of using the Internet to distribute “materials containing public calls for the seizure of state power, for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order”. You have harmed the national security of the Republic of Belarus. In addition to these charges, 49-year-old Chekina was also convicted of tax evasion. The verdicts caused great horror among human rights defenders and opponents of Lukashenko.

While in exile abroad, Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya criticized the sentences as “Lukashenko’s personal revenge” against these women and an attempt to “wipe out honest journalism”. “I have absolutely no doubt that the values ​​​​of Mila and Marina will win and that both will eventually be released. And although the world itself cannot hear her, we will be her voice,” said Tichanovskaya, who was seen by many as the winner of August 2020 elections against Lukashenko.(oee/dpa)