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Opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya
Photo: photonews.at/Georges Schneider / imago images / photonews.at
Only recently have more people in Belarus been daring to take to the streets against their authoritarian ruler.
Courts, however, repeatedly impose long prison sentences on opponents of the regime.
Now four confidants of the opposition party Svetlana Tichanovskaya in Belarus have each been sentenced to at least six years in a prison camp.
A court in the city of Gomel found the three men and one woman guilty of, among other things, preparing mass riots, according to a statement by the Attorney General's office published on Tuesday.
The convicts denied the allegations.
Independent journalists also complained that they were not allowed into the courtroom.
Human rights activists repeatedly accuse the Belarusian judiciary of politically motivated trials.
The long-term ruler Alexander Lukashenko, often criticized as the “last dictator in Europe”, has repeatedly discredited his opponents as troublemakers since last year's presidential election, which was widely regarded as falsified.
Tichanovskaya, who fled to the EU from the Belarusian apparatus of power, is seen as the winner of last August's election in the eyes of her supporters.
At that time, however, the 66-year-old Lukashenko was officially declared the winner.
During the mass protests that followed, Belarusian security forces often cracked down on peaceful demonstrators, and more than 30,000 people were arrested.
Hundreds of thousands of people on the streets demanded Lukashenko's resignation and new elections.
After the mass protests in late summer and autumn of last year, there have been at most minor actions for months - also out of fear of police violence.
The EU no longer recognizes Lukashenko as president and has imposed sanctions.
Lukashenko, on the other hand, relies on Russia as an ally.
mfh / dpa
