Belarus sentenced Lukashenko’s enemy Barbarico to 14 years in prison in “false” trial Reuters

Authors: Maria Kiselyova and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber

MOSCOW (Reuters)-On Tuesday, a Belarusian court sentenced former presidential candidate Viktor Babariko to 14 years in prison after denying corruption charges, which sparked an embattled exile in the West Condemned by the opposition.

Before his arrest in June last year, public opinion polls showed that the 57-year-old Barbarico was the veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko’s main competitor before the presidential election. The opposition claimed that the election was rigged to extend the election in August last year. Lukashenko’s long-term rule.

Since coming to power in 1994, Lukashenko’s claim to have won an overwhelming election victory and a new presidency has triggered the largest protest in modern history of the 9.7 million people of the former Soviet Republic backed by Moscow. He denied election fraud.

Before Tuesday’s ruling, allies of Babariko, the former president of Belgazprombank, stated that the allegations against him were fabricated in order to thwart his political ambitions.

Sviatlana Tsikhaouskaya, the protest leader who fled Belarus during the post-election crackdown, said: “For a person who decides to enter politics and become one of the leaders who awakens the country from sleep In all, this is a crazy word.”

“…The regime is doing its utmost to eliminate any thoughts that are a little bit like faith and hope. But for Victor-as it is for the thousands of innocent people in prison-the most important thing is The hope in our hearts,” she said.

The US Embassy in Minsk criticized the ruling.

The embassy said on Twitter: “The cruel scam of the Belarusian court system is on display today…that the Lukashenko regime will maintain power at all costs.”

After Barbarico was banned from running for election and detained, one of his allies Maria Kolesnikova and two other women-Zihanusskaya and Veronica Tipkallo- -Jointly lead the opposition movement.

Kolesnikova is now in prison, Tsepkalo fled abroad, competed with Lukashenko and has since become the opposition’s most outstanding free figure Tsikhanouskaya is trying to weaken Lukashenko from neighboring Lithuania.

The UN special rapporteur told Belarus on Monday that about 530 prisoners considered by rights groups to be “political prisoners” should be released immediately because the Washington envoy hinted that further economic sanctions might be imposed on Minsk.

UN Special Rapporteur Ana Ismailin said that over 35,000 people have been arbitrarily detained in the past year, and fear of repression has led to tens of thousands of Belarusians fleeing abroad to seek asylum.