A Minsk court on Friday sentenced exiled Belarusian opposition politician Valeriy Tsepkalo to 17 years in a high-security prison in absentia, the state-run news agency Belta reported. Tsepkalo, a former head of Belarus' equivalent of Silicon Valley, the High Technology Park, intended to run in Belarus' 2020 presidential election but was barred from registering as a candidate. His wife, Veronika Tsepkalo, is one of three women who led historic opposition protests in the run-up to the 2020 election.