After brutally cracking down on opponents inside Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko is attacking those who fled abroad after his fraudulent presidential re-election in August 2020, which sparked an unprecedented protest movement . The trial in absentia of her rival in the election, Svetlana Tsikhanovskaïa, opens on Tuesday January 17 in Minsk. The 40-year-old exiled opposition leader faces ten charges, including “conspiracy to seize power”. She faces 15 to 20 years in prison.
“I expect nothing from this trial, because we know that it will be neither honest nor fair, she explains to World by videoconference from his office in Vilnius, Lithuania. The judicial system has become a war machine aimed at anyone who denounces the dictator. » Other opponents who have taken refuge abroad will be tried the same day, including politician Pavel Latouchko.
Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya is one of the very first to be tried in absentia. This practice has become possible since Mr. Lukashenko signed a law to this effect in July 2022. A second law, promulgated on January 5, 2023, allows for the withdrawal of their citizenship from Belarusians in exile found guilty of “participation in activities of an extremist nature or which have caused harm to the interests of Belarus”a crime of which the leader of the opposition is also accused.
Multiplication of stateless persons
This legislative strengthening specifically targets the many Belarusians in exile. “There will be thousands of people who will be illegally deprived of their citizenship, anticipate Mme Tsikhanovskaïa, who specifies that she does not have refugee status, like most of these exiles. The countries that welcome us and the whole of the European Union will have to face up to this problem. » To avoid the proliferation of stateless persons, it proposes to the EU the establishment of a “New Belarus Passport” – understanding democratic.
However, the prospect of a free Belarus is more distant than ever since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Belarusian territory has become the rear base of Russian troops and Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin’s vassal, in to whom he owes his political survival. For the opposition, new challenges have arisen: “We have gone from heroes of the nation to co-aggressor”, deplores Svetlana Tsikhanovskaïa. Those who have risen up against the Lukashenko regime are paying the price. They are now regularly confused with the one they are fighting. “It took us so long to explain that the Belarusian regime and the population are two different things and to make sure that the visa ban does not target Belarusians! »
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