An exiled Belarus opposition figure is sentenced in absentia to 20 years

Tallinn, Estonia — A Belarus court sentenced in absentia a leading opposition figure living in exile to 20 years in prison, the latest in a Year-long repression against dissent in the country.

The court in the capital, Minsk, handed down the sentence on Thursday night against Franak Viachorka, an adviser to opposition leader Svitalana Tsikhanouskaya, after finding him guilty of charges including treason and insulting the president.

Viachorka lives in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where many opposition figures, including Tsikhanouskaya, fled after the disputed 2020 presidential election in which Tsikhanouskaya ran against the authoritarian president. Alexander Lukashenko.

Lukashenko, who has led Belarus since 1994, was declared the winner of the election, but the result was widely considered falsified. The opposition and the West questioned Lukashenko’s re-election and denounced that the vote was rigged.

Those results sparked months of protests unprecedented in their size and duration. Police arrested more than 35,000 people in connection with the protests, many of whom were beaten.

Opposition figures who remained in the country were imprisoned, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, founder of the human rights organization Viasna. Viachorka had sought to be allowed to testify at his trial via video conference, but the request was denied.

“It was not a trial, but a sham, and all the charges against me were trumped up,” he told The Associated Press.