The Belarusian judiciary has handed down a 12-year prison sentence in absentia against Alexandra Herasemenya, a former Olympic swimmer and anti-President Alexander Lukashenko activist, on charges of “forming an extremist organisation”, an organization for human rights.
The “Viasna” organization said a Minsk court handed down this sentence in absentia against Herasemenia, 36, following a trial that began on 19 December.
And Hirasemenya, who won silver and bronze medals at the Olympic Games (2012 and 2016), retired from sport in 2019 and has since lived in exile, where she founded a human rights organization opposed to the president Lukashenko.
Viasna added, in a statement on his website, that the court also convicted the former swimmer of “calling for sanctions against Belarus” and “publishing false information about events” that rocked the country in 2020.
In 2020, Belarus witnessed unprecedented protests against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994.
In the midst of these protests, Herasemenya, along with other athletes from his country, signed an open letter calling for “free elections”. You also founded the “Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation”, an organization that provides financial and legal assistance to Belarusian athletes persecuted by the authorities.
However, the Belarusian authorities quickly declared this organization an “extremist organization”.
In April 2021, Herasemenya auctioned off the gold medal she won at the 2012 World Aquatics Championships. That day, the medal was sold for €13,500, with this amount going to support opposition athletes.
On the other hand, the “Viasna” organization announced in a separate statement that a union official named Alexander Yaroshuk was sentenced on Monday to 4 years in prison for “serious disturbance of public order” in 2020.
For more than two years, the Belarusian authorities have waged a relentless campaign of repression that has left the vast majority of opposition figures in the country in prison or in exile.
