Belarus opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski has been released from prison after five years, his wife Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya said in a post on X. Tsikhanouski, 46, is now in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, a spokesperson for his wife said.
Tsikhanouski had planned to run against incumbent Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election. A charismatic activist, he coined a new insult for Lukashenko when he called him a “cockroach” and his campaign slogan was “Stop the cockroach”. His supporters waved slippers, often used to kill the insects, at protests. But Tsikhanouski was arrested and detained weeks before the vote. His wife, Tsikhanouskaya – a political novice at the time of his arrest, took his place in the polls. Tsikhanouski was sentenced in 2021 to 18 years in prison for “organizing riots” and “inciting hatred” and then to 18 months extra for “insubordination”.
Belarus, ruled by Lukashenko since 1994, has outlawed all opposition movements and is the only European country to retain the death penalty as a punishment. There are more than 1,000 political prisoners in the country, according to the Belarusian human rights group Viasna.
Read more here.
