A court in Minsk sentenced in absentia one of the Belarusian opposition leaders Pavel Latushko to 18 years in prison on Monday, March 6.
It is reported that public prosecutor Mikhail Kovalev asked the court to appoint Latushko 19 years in prison in a corruption case. The state prosecution also considered it necessary to recover from the opposition activist a sum of money equivalent to the bribe he received during his tenure as Minister of Culture in the amount of $10,000, reports “RIA News”.
In January, the Minsk City Court began considering a criminal case against ex-candidate for the presidency of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Pavel Latushko, as well as the head of Tikhanovskaya’s election headquarters Maria Moroz and members of the opposition coordinating council Olga Kovalkova and Sergei Dylevsky.
On the same day, a Belarusian court found Tikhanovskaya guilty of the crimes she was accused of and sentenced her in absentia to 15 years in prison.
Prior to that, on March 3, the Minsk court found Ales Byalyatsky, Nobel laureate, head of the unregistered human rights center “Viasna” guilty in the case of smuggling and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
Earlier, on February 27, it was reported that the public prosecutor asked the Belarusian court to sentence Tikhanovskaya and Latushka in absentia to 19 years in prison.
On December 1 last year, the Investigative Committee (IC) of Belarus completed a preliminary investigation into members of the opposition coordinating council, including Tikhanovskaya and Latushko. The case was referred to the Attorney General for trial.
The prosecutor asked all the accused to be found guilty of a conspiracy committed to seize state power in the country in an unconstitutional way.
In 2020, presidential elections were held in Belarus, in which the current head of state Alexander Lukashenko won. The opposition did not agree with the results of the vote and declared Svyatlana Tikhanovskaya the winner of the elections. Protests were held in the country. After a series of arrests, Tikhanovskaya left for Lithuania. In October 2020, she was put on the interstate wanted list by the Belarusian authorities.
