Belarus calls for Tichanovskaya's extradition

Icon: enlarge

The Baltic EU country rejected the extradition of Svetlana Tichanovskaya to Lithuania (archive photo)

Photo: Claudio Bresciani / dpa

The authoritarian-led Belarus has applied for the extradition of the opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis decidedly rejected the extradition request on Friday.

His country will continue to be "a protective wall behind which all democratic forces that are persecuted by regimes find refuge," he emphasized.

"We can only say one thing to the Belarusian regime: Hell must first freeze before we can consider your demands."

The Belarusian Prosecutor General said on Friday that it had applied for Tichanovskaya to be transferred so that she could be held responsible for "crimes against the government, public security and the state."

At the beginning of the week, the authorities had put the opposition politician on the wanted list for “preparing for unrest”.

After the presidential election in August there were mass protests in Belarus against the ruler Alexander Lukashenko for weeks.

The opposition accuses the head of state, who has been in power for 26 years, with electoral fraud; the EU does not recognize Lukashenko's officially announced re-election.

Tichanowskaja stood in the election against Lukashenko instead of her imprisoned husband Sergei Tichanowski and later fled to Lithuania.

Again and again she meets European politicians to solicit support for the Belarusian democracy movement.

Icon: The mirror

mjm / dpa