“Another example of Lukashenko’s judicial travesty”

BRUSSELS, 7 Mar. () –

The European Union has charged this Tuesday against the “absurd” sentence of the Belarusian opposition leader, Svetlana Tijanovskaya, sentenced to 15 years in prison ‘in absentia’ for conspiracy, directing an “extremist” organization and attacking Belarusian national security together with other dissident politicians.

“The EU condemns these absurd sentences, which were based on fabricated charges of treason, extremism, conspiracy and incitement to hatred. This is another deplorable example of Alexander Lukashenko’s continued travesty of justice and political use of the judiciary” , the bloc has pointed out in a statement from the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.

The Prosecutor’s Office requested a sentence of 19 years in prison for the influential opposition, Lukashenko’s main rival in the August 2020 elections, which the EU considers fraudulent and triggered large protests violently repressed by Minsk. Then, Tijanovskaya declared herself a “national leader” after accusing the Belarusian president of committing “treason” although she took refuge in Lithuania from where she has followed her political activity in the midst of a crisis in her country.

For community diplomacy with the cases of Tijanovskaya and other opponents such as the former Minister of Culture Pavel Latushka, Maria Moroz, Olga Kovalkova and Sergei Dilevski, linked to the opposition council and also sentenced to prison terms, Minsk “hits bottom” in its attempts to silence those who stand up to the “illegitimate” regime in Belarus.

In this sense Borrell emphasizes that the sentences against the opposition leaders, all in exile, are “too high and unjustified”, in addition to occurring ‘in absentia’ and in trials behind closed doors.

Faced with the new show of repression against Lukashenko’s opponents, the Twenty-seven send a message of support insisting that they will continue to support “all those who courageously defend an independent and democratic Belarus” and point out that they are prepared to act in the face of “the scandalous and constant demolition of the rights of its population”.