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Belarusian opposition figure Maryya Kalesnikava could be sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges that the U.S. State Department described as "an outrage." Kalesnikava is one of several opposition leaders facing jail or other forms of persecution from Alyaksandr Lukashenka's forces.
Harsher Charges Revealed Against Jailed Belarusian Opposition Figures Kalesnikava, Znak
February 12, 2021 10:02 GMT
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MINSK Opposition sources say that the Belarusian authorities have added charges including conspiracy to seize state power and organizing extremism to the cases of jailed opposition figures Maryya Kalesnikava and Maksim Znak.
Both are among the detained ranking members of the Coordination Council, an opposition group set up after Belarus s disputed presidential election in August with the stated aim of facilitating a peaceful transfer of power.
News of the fresh prosecutions came after the first day of a Soviet-style All-Belarusian People s Assembly mounted by Alyaksandr Lukashenka to float possible reforms and development in a move that appears designed to buy him time amid unprecedented protests against his regime.
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MINSK Viktar Babaryka, a former Belarusian banker whose bid to challenge Alyaksandr Lukashenka in last year’s disputed presidential election was halted by his arrest, is due to go on trial on February 17.
The
announcement on Babaryka’s Telegram channel on February 4 came shortly after a preliminary hearing at a district court in Minsk earlier in the day at which Babaryka was not present.
Several co-defendants
were in court, including six men, who made deals with investigators in hopes of facing lesser charges.
The court case is due to be heard by the Belarusian Supreme Court, a move that was criticized last week by Babaryka’s lawyer, Dzmitry Layeuski, who said that would deny them any chance of appeal in the event of a guilty verdict.