The trial of Sergei Tikhanovsky, the political opponent of the current president of Belarus Alexandr Lukashenko, who, before the elections last August in the Eastern European country, had proposed himself as a challenger of what has been defined as “the last dictator of Europe “. However, his election campaign had suffered an abrupt halt: after being accused of organizing mass riots, Tikhanovsky was arrested in March 2020 and has been in prison ever since. In the trial, the first hearing of which took place behind closed doors in a detention center in Gomel, in the east of the country, the former presidential candidate and historical figure of the Belarusian opposition Mikola Statkevich and four other dissidents are also accused: Igor Losik, Vladimir Tsyganovich, Dmitry Papou and Artsyom Sakau. The accusations against them are considered to be of a political nature by many observers. Tikhanovsky’s wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, said: “Everyone has understood that this is not a trial but the personal revenge of those who have taken power and maintain it through the use of force.”
Tikhanovskaya, who has been in exile in Lithuania for more than a year, had replaced her husband in the electoral race after his arrest, and has since become one of the best-known faces of the Belarusian opposition. Last August’s elections were officially won by Lukashenko, outgoing president in office since 1994, who won the victory with more than 80% of the votes. But many inside and outside the country believe that the result is the result of massive electoral fraud and for months in Belarus there have been mass protests against the regime in which demonstrators demanded the resignation of Lukashenko. Tikhanovskaya left Belarus to safeguard her safety and that of her children. Peaceful demonstrations have been repressed with truncheons and waves of arrests, and the police are also accused of torturing demonstrators. Tikhanovskaya left Belarus to safeguard the safety of her children. According to the human rights organization Viasna, more than 500 inmates are considered political prisoners in the country.
More recently, news of the arrest of dissident Roman Protasevich while on a Ryanair plane bound for Lithuania has caused a sensation. The flight was forced to land in Belarus by some aircraft of Lukashenko’s army under the pretext of a bomb scare.