A court in Belarus's western city of Baranavichy has sentenced activist Ihar Shumilau to 4 1/2 years in prison for posting online caricatures of several officials, including the country’s authoritarian ruler, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
The Minsk-based Vyasna (Spring) human rights group said on June 1 that the Baranavichy City Court sentenced Shumilau, who lost a leg in a traffic accident 10 years ago and has an 11-year-old son, on May 30 after finding him guilty of insulting and libeling Lukashenka and several top officials.
Shumilau was initially detained in late February and sentenced to 15 days in jail on a charge of "distributing extremist materials."
He was not released after he served his term and instead immediately sent to pretrial detention on the new charges that he was found guilty of and sentenced for on May 30.
Vyasna also said on June 1 that the central district court in Minsk on May 30 handed a two-year parole-like sentence to children's author Yana Tsegla.
Tsegla was found guilty of the "organization and preparation of actions that blatantly disrupt social order," a charge many Belarusians have faced for protesting against Lukashenka after he claimed victory in a 2020 presidential election that the opposition says was rigged.
Hundreds of people have been handed prison terms in Belarus following the unprecedented anti-Lukashenka rallies sparked by the election results.
Thousands of others have been detained, and there have been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by security forces. Several people have died during the crackdown.
The 68-year-old Lukashenka has leaned heavily on Russian support amid Western sanctions while punishing the opposition and arresting or forcing many of its leaders out of the country.
Lukashenka denies voter fraud and has refused to negotiate with the opposition, led by Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who supporters say actually won the vote.
The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.