In Belarus, the Minsk City Court sentenced Belarusian opposition leader and ex-presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in absentia to 15 years in prison, Viasna human rights center reported..

Tikhanovskaya, as well as other members of the Coordinating Council of the Belarusian opposition, were charged with ten criminal cases: preparing to participate in mass riots, plotting to seize power, creating and leading “extremist formations”, and others.. Prosecutors asked her for 19 years in prison..

The court also sentenced the former Minister of Culture of Belarus Pavel Latushko to 18 years in prison, and other defendants in the case - Maria Moroz, Olga Kovalkova and Sergei Dylevsky - were sentenced to 12 years in prison..

Tikhanovskaya, Latushko and other defendants are abroad, the trial is held in absentia.

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In December 2021, a Belarusian court sentenced Tikhanovskaya's husband, Sergei, to 18 years in prison for inciting hatred and public disorder.. The video blogger was arrested in May 2020 when he was preparing to run for president against Lukashenka - and it was after his arrest that Tikhanovskaya ran instead of him in the elections.

As a result of the presidential elections in Belarus in 2020, Aliaksandr Lukashenko was again declared the winner.

The opposition called the results of the vote falsified, and large-scale protests began in the country, which as a result severely crushed.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya left Belarus during the post-election protests and lives in Lithuania. Her office received the status of "

At the same time, in the summer of 2022, the so-called institution of special proceedings was introduced in Belarus, which allows conducting trials in absentia in the absence of the accused, after which the authorities began trials of Tikhanovskaya and other oppositionists.