Top Belarus opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova sentenced to 11 years – Everett Post

Everett

(MOSCOW) – One of the leading opposition figures in Belarus, who led massive protests against authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko last year, was sentenced to 11 years in prison by a court in Minsk.

Maria Kolesnikova was one of three women who led the huge peaceful protests that threatened to end Lukashenko’s 26-year rule last summer, but which have since been crushed with relentless repression.

Most of the opposition leaders, including Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who has become the movement’s main leader, were forced into exile shortly after the protests began last August, sparked by Lukashenko’s victory in a presidential election widely condemned as rigged internationally.

But Kolesnikova refused to go into exile, although Lukashenko tightened his grip again. Last September, security forces abducted her from the streets of the capital, Minsk, and then drove her to the border with Ukraine, where they attempted to forcibly deport her. But Kolesnikova resisted an attempt, tore up her passport to make her deportation impossible, and refused to leave, even though she knew that she would face some imprisonment in Belarus.

A court in Minsk on Monday sentenced them, along with another prominent activist, Maxim Znak, to 11 years in prison after being convicted of extremism and illegal seizure of power.

He and Kolesnikova were members of the opposition Coordinating Council, which was set up during the protests to demand a peaceful transfer of power from Lukashenko.

Their trial took place behind closed doors with no public evidence, and both pleaded not guilty and called the charges political.

The verdicts follow months of intense action in Belarus as Lukashenko’s regime tried to crush all organized dissent after overcoming the protests. Most independent media and human rights groups have been shut down and hundreds arrested, while dozen have already been convicted. Virtually all opposition leaders are now imprisoned or in exile.

Western countries quickly condemned Monday’s ruling, while the US and the European Union demanded their immediate release.

Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken criticized the verdicts as “shameful” and based on “false” allegations.

“We reaffirm our call to end the campaign of repression against the Belarusian people for exercising their human rights inside and outside Belarus and for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners – including Ms. Kalesnikava and Mr. Znak,” Blinken said in a statement.

Kolesnikova and a heart shape that she shapes with her hands became symbols of the protest movement. She and Tikhanovskaya were also seen as emblematic of the central role women played in the protests that saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets. During the demonstrations, women holding flowers and dressed in red and white – the colors of the protests – often formed peaceful human chains and forced the riot police to retreat early.

The video from the court on Monday showed Kolesnikova smiling and handcuffed to form the characteristic heart shape while standing in a glass cage.

Key figure in the opposition in Belarus disappears

Kolesnikova was a professional flute player before she first got involved in politics last year when she became the spokesperson for Viktor Babriko, an energy manager who wanted to run against Lukashenko in the elections.

After Babriko was jailed ahead of the vote on widely criticized political fraud allegations, she allied herself with Tichanovskaya, who stood in to replace her own candidate husband, who was also jailed.

“Maria & Maksim are the heroes of the Belarusians,” wrote Tikhanovskaya after the judgments on Twitter.

“The regime wants us to see them crushed and exhausted,” she wrote, noting the video of Kolesnikova and Znak smiling instead. “But look – they smile and dance. You know – we’ll be releasing them much sooner than these 11 years. We shouldn’t be afraid of their conditions – Maksim and Maria wouldn’t want that. “