A court in Belarus has sentenced exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to 15 years in prison after a trial in absentia on charges including conspiring to overthrow the government. It is the latest move in a months-long effort by the Belarusian government to suppress dissent.
Ms Tsikhanouskaya ran against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in an election in August 2020 that handed him his sixth term in office and was widely seen as rigged. She called her conviction and sentence an act of vengeance by Belarusian authorities and vowed to continue to "fight for freedom."
