Sergei Tikhanovsky, the husband of Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 years in prison.
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It informs state Belarusian media.
Sergei Tikhanovsky planned to challenge Belarus’s strongman Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 election, but was arrested, accused of disturbing public order.
The 43-year-old has been in custody since May last year.
– I will continue to defend the person I love and who has become a leader for millions of Belarusians. I will try something that is very difficult – perhaps impossible: to speed up the moment when we can all be together in a new Belarus, Tikhanovskaya says about his husband in a video clip published on Tuesday.
She said ahead of the verdict, that, regardless of the outcome, it is illegal.
After her husband was arrested, his wife ran as a candidate in the election, with President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly securing more than 80 percent of the vote. After the election, she fled into exile for fear of being imprisoned, as have a number of other opposition figures.
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