Sergei Dzhanovsky sentenced to 18 years in prison – News

• The 43-year-old blogger had to go to prison to “prepare and organize mass uprisings”, especially under extreme conditions.
• The Belarusian state news agency Belda announced on Tuesday, citing the court.
• Svetlana Tichanovskaya previously described the verdict against her husband as “illegal.”
• Other critics besides Tichanovsky were imprisoned by the ruler Alexander Lukashenko.

Five others were sentenced to several years in prison. For example, leading opposition politician Nikolai Statkewitsch faces up to 14 years in prison. This also applies to opposition politician Victor Babrikov.

Maria Kolsnikova, a longtime cultural manager at Stuttgart, was sentenced to eleven years in a camp. Belarusian courts have been criticized for repeatedly handing down judgments with political intent against members of the opposition and dissidents.

In last year’s presidential election, Dzhanovsky initially wanted to run against the ruler Alexander Lukashenko, but he was arrested. His wife, Svetlana, fled in his place and fled to the EU country of Lithuania shortly after the election. On the other hand, Lukashenko was again declared the winner, which was not recognized by the West after reports of massive fraud.