Piotr Müller made the statement at a news conference in Warsaw on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Asked about the sentencing of Tsikhanouskaya, Müller said: “Unfortunately, the Belarusian regime is taking an ever harder line in internal policy.”
'Belarus must face far-reaching measures'
He added: “These show trials that have been taking place recently, the successive sentences handed to various persons, show that sadly Belarus must face far-reaching measures when it comes to international sanctions.”
Müller told reporters that Poland had asked the Council of the European Union to extend existing economic sanctions against Russia to also cover Belarus.
He said: “In our view, Belarus should be subject to similar sanctions, mainly because it … served as a launch pad for the Russian army" in its invasion of Ukraine, "but also because of these recent moves to intensify the crackdown on opposition activists in Belarus.”
Müller added that Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had lobbied “through various European channels” for the sanctions list “to include all the people that are participating in the show trials in Belarus, from prosecutors to judges and other persons who work for institutions of repression in Belarus.”
Tsikhanouskaya sentenced to 15 years in prison
Müller’s words came after a court in the Belarusian capital Minsk on Monday sentenced Tsikhanouskaya to 15 years in prison after a trial in absentia, as the Belarusian government continues its efforts to suppress dissent, news outlets reported.
In addition to the prison sentence, Tsikhanouskaya was ordered to pay a fine of about USD 11,000.
Meanwhile, another exiled opposition politician, Pavel Latushka, was sentenced to 18 years in prison and was banned for five years from holding public office, the AP news agency reported.
Latushka, who is based in Poland, is a former Belarusian culture minister and ambassador to several European countries.
Maryya Maroz, Volha Kavalkova and Siarhei Dylevski received 12-year sentences.
'Draconian verdicts in absentia': Polish foreign ministry spokesman
Polish foreign ministry spokesman Łukasz Jasina said in a tweet that the "the draconian verdicts in absentia for the leaders of democratic Belarus ... mock the law."
He added that the "authorities in Minsk will not deter Belarusian society or its aspirations for freedom and democracy."
Charges against Tsikhanouskaya and the four other opposition politicians included “conspiring to overthrow the government, creating and leading an extremist group, inciting hatred and harming national security,” according to news outlets.
Disputed 2020 elections
Tsikhanouskaya ran against Belarus’ strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko in August 2020, in a presidential election in which Lukashenko was declared the winner, but which was widely regarded as rigged.
The official results of the vote sparked the biggest protests in Belarus’ history, while Lukashenko launched a massive crackdown on demonstrators, accusing the opposition of “plotting to overthrow the government,” the Associated Press reported.
Under pressure, Tsikhnouskaya left for Lithuania. The four other opposition politicians who were sentenced on Monday also left Belarus following the eruption of protests in August 2020, according to news outlets.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Associated Press