The main critic of the Belarusian president, Viktor Babaryko, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison. The former banker was found guilty of bribery and money laundering – charges he has denied and which he says were used to stop him from challenging Alexander Lukashenko in last year’s election.
He is one of the main critics of Lukashenko, who has been imprisoned or exiled. Lukashenko has been repeatedly accused by many critics and Western governments of rigging the election.
He was arrested in June last year, along with Maria Kolesnikova, an ally of Babaryko, who is also in prison. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the wife of opposition politician Sergei Tikhanovsky, was arrested in March 2020, claiming she had won the August elections.
But after Lukashenko took power, she was forced to leave the country the next day.
