Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions today against the following people for the following reasons: Vladimir Kara-Murza was arrested by Russia in April and declared a "foreign agent", and remains held on suspicion of spreading false information about the armed forces. Russians involved in the arrest, prosecution or abuse of a Russian opposition leader imprisoned last year for speaking out against the war have been sanctioned by the US. Their call for freedom is loud, even behind bars."Ī spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, said the UN body was disturbed by the trial and "the lack of fair trial proceedings and access to an independent judiciary in Belarus". Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, said in a statement: "Lukashenko will not succeed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for the group's immediate release on Twitter, describing the court ruling as a "sham" and "an attempt to suppress democracy and human rights in Belarus." Much a daily disgrace" as Lukashenko's support for Vladimir Putin's war, she added. "The Minsk regime is fighting civil society with violenceĪnd imprisonment," said German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock on Twitter. Three other activists were sentenced to a combined 24 years in jail.
President Alexander Lukashenko, whose nation is party to a Union State agreement with Russia, has violently locked up his opponents or forced them to flee for three decades. Human rights and democracy activist Ales Bialiatski, 60, was found guilty of financing protests by a court in Minsk, following a crackdown on a series of anti-government demonstrations that started in the summer of 2020 and continued into 2021.
Russian ally Belarus has sentenced a Nobel Peace Prize winner to 10 years in prison following a trial labeled a "sham" by the US and EU.
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