(Reuters) – Here are some of the events in Belarus leading up to the trial of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and his sentencing on Friday to 10 years in prison.
Bialiatski denied the charges against him, and he and some human rights groups say the case against him was politically motivated.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Belarus holds a presidential election on Aug. 9, 2020, in which veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko is declared the winner despite widespread allegations of electoral fraud.
His main challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, says she was the real winner and that the vote was rigged. International monitors say the election was not free or fair, and countries including the United States and European Union member states say they don’t recognise the result.
2020-21 PROTESTS
Anti-government protests that began in the run-up to the election become much larger after Lukashenko is declared the winner, and develop into the biggest in Belarus’s history. Police use batons, rubber bullets, water cannon and teargas against protesters demanding a fair vote count.
On Aug. 14, 2020, Tsikhanouskaya announces the creation of an opposition Coordination Council seeking a democratic transfer of power. Lukashenko denounces the council and the chief prosecutor says it is unconstitutional, but protests continue for months into 2021.
POLICE CRACKDOWN
Police and security forces launch a crackdown in which human rights organisations say thousands are detained arbitrarily and hundreds are subjected to torture or ill-treatment. Rights groups say several are killed, or die in unknown circumstances.
Lukashenko and Belarusian authorities deny accusations of human rights abuses.
Tsikhanouskaya and other opposition figures flee abroad, and she leads the opposition from exile in Lithuania.
Her husband Syarhei Tsikhanouski, who was arrested in May 2020 and prevented from running in the election, is jailed for 18 years in December 2022 on charges of organising mass unrest and inciting social hatred. The following month, Tsikhanouskaya goes on trial in absentia on treason charges.
Rights advocates estimate Belarus has 1,500 political prisoners and that 50,000 people have been detained for taking part in protests or criticising the authorities since 2020.
PLANE DIVERTED
On May 23, 2021, a Ryanair passenger plane with opposition journalist Roman Protasevich on board is diverted by Belarusian airline authorities while en route from Greece to Lithuania in what the European Union calls an act of piracy.
Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, are arrested when the plane lands. Sapega is later sentenced to six years in jail on charges of inciting hatred. Protasevich faces charges including conspiracy to seize power and setting up a terrorist organisation.
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
On Oct. 7, 2022, Bialiatski wins the Nobel Peace Prize with the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, which documents alleged war crimes, and Memorial, a human rights group banned in Russia.
RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE
Minsk and Moscow are close allies and Lukashenko is highly dependent on Kremlin support, though little progress has been made on implementing a plan for a “union state” between Russia and Belarus.
On Feb. 24, 2022, Belarus allows its territory to be used by Russia’s military to launch its invasion of Ukraine. Lukashenko says Belarus stands behind Russia in its military drive but that he will order Belarusian troops to fight alongside Russian forces only if another country launches an attack on Belarus.
INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS
Belarus faces international sanctions that are gradually tightened over its record on human rights and democracy over the 2020 election, the police crackdown and the country’s role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions, led by the United States and the EU, include restrictions on trade and banking operations, and a limit on financial flows out of Belarus. Some individuals, including Lukashenko, face asset freezes abroad and travel bans.
(Compiled by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Frances Kerry)
