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Polish president voices solidarity with political prisoners in Belarus

14.12.2021 21:00
Poland's president has voiced his solidarity with political prisoners in neighbouring Belarus, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski, the jailed husband of opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Polands President Andrzej Duda.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda.Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański

"I express my solidarity with all the political prisoners of the Lukashenko regime, including those sentenced today in the show trial of Siarhei Tsikhanouski," Andrzej Duda said in a tweet on Tuesday.

"I am impressed by the courage of Belarusian men and women, whose struggle resembles our own fight against the communist regime," he added.

A Belarusian court sentenced Siarhei Tsikhanouski, the husband of opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, to 18 years in jail for organising mass unrest and inciting social hatred, news agencies reported on Tuesday.

Tsikhanouski was imprisoned in May last year as he prepared to run for the presidency against Belarus' strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, the Reuters news agency reported.

Tsikhanouskaya ran in her husband's place in the presidential election in August last year. Mass protests broke out in the country after the opposition accused Lukashenko of rigging the vote.

Tsikhanouskaya confirmed in a tweet on Tuesday that her husband, who denied the charges against him, was "sentenced to 18 years in prison."

Meanwhile, several other Belarusian opposition activists were handed prison terms ranging from 14 to 16 years, Tsikhanouskaya said, listing Artsiom Sakau, Dzmitry Papou, Ihar Losik, Uladzimir Tsyhanovich and Mikalai Statkevich.

"They're repressed for the wish to live in a free Belarus," Tsikhanouskaya tweeted.

(gs)

Source: PAP, Reuters, rp.pl