Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa at the Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 19, 2023. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
The prosecution demanded this Monday in Belarus 19 years in prison against the opponent in exile Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, tried in absentia since January in this former Soviet republic, in full repression of any voice critical of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. A refugee in Lithuania, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, 40, is the target of a dozen charges, including those of high treason and “conspiracy to seize power unconstitutionally“.
During a hearing on Monday in a court in Minsk, the prosecution requested against her 19 years in prison, reported the official Belarusian news agency Belta. A similar sentence has been sought against another exiled opposition figure, Pavel Latouchko, a former culture minister and ex-director of the Belarusian State Academic Theatre, Belta added. For three other exiled allies of Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa – Maria Moroz, Olga Kovalkova and Sergei Dylevski – tried in the same trial, the prosecution requested 12 years in prison, according to the same source.
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Stifled disputes
Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, who ran for president in 2020 in Belarus in place of her imprisoned husband Sergei Tikhanovski, had during the campaign gathered crowds across her country, raising hopes for change. Forced into exile, the one who once presented herself as a simple stay-at-home mother is now the face of democratic forces in Belarus and the enemy of a regime whose brutal abuses she tirelessly denounces. In an interview with AFP in January, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called her trial a “farce” and “personal revenge” by Alexander Lukashenko against the one who shook his power in 2020.
During the summer of 2020, Belarus was shaken by a historic protest movement to denounce the controversial re-election of Alexander Lukashenko, in power for nearly three decades. Mass arrests, forced exiles and imprisonment of democracy activists and journalists have shattered this movement. The husband of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a popular blogger who fiercely criticized Alexander Lukashenko, was sentenced in December 2021 to 18 years in prison, in particular for “organization of mass unrest” And “incitement to hatred in society“.
In early January, a Belarusian court also began trying Ales Bialiatski, a jailed democracy activist, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the human rights center Viasna. Ales Bialiatski and his associates each risk up to 12 years in prison.
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