MINSK -- A court in Minsk has sentenced a blogger to 18 months in a maximum security penal colony for her participation in protests against the government of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Among the charges for disrupting public order in August 2020, Volha Takarchuk, a 36-year-old blogger and mother of two young children, allegedly "blocked traffic" and "shouted slogans."
She was sentenced on December 20 as the court followed the sentencing request of prosecutors in the case.
“If each of us falls silent, it will be what it was before: everyone in the kitchen quietly hated power, condemned it, but sat and did nothing. I don't want to live on my knees,” she said in a video recorded in January in case she was ever arrested and held in detention.
Protests erupted in Belarus after Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the winner of an August 2020 election that opponents say was rigged. The West has refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus.
Tens of thousands of people have been detained and human rights activists say more than 800 people are now in jail as political prisoners amid a sometimes violent crackdown by officials on dissent.
Independent media and opposition social media channels have been targeted as well.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.
Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the presidential vote and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.
The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have imposed sanctions on him and several senior Belarusian officials in response to the "falsification" of the vote and the postelection crackdown.
