A student has been handed a crushing six-and-a-half year sentence for daring to criticise two dictators over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Danuta Perednya reposted a message critical of Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin and Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
The Kiraŭski District Court in Belarus sentenced her for simply expressing her anti-war opinion in a repost.
She was found to have damaged the ‘national interests’ of Belarus in criticising Lukashenko, seen in the West and by opposition forces, as a vote-rigging tyrant who twisted the results of a 2020 presidential election to illegally remain in power.
Her February 27 post - three days after the start of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine - allegedly included a call for street protests and critical comments about the Belarus army.
She was arrested on February 28 and immediately expelled from her university despite being its “top student”.
On 10 June, the notorious KGB - the Committee of State Security which still uses its Soviet acronym - included her in its list of "persons involved in terrorist activities”.
Her sentence appears a draconian response to a repost critical of Putin and Lukashenko over the Ukrainian invasion.
Perednya has been dubbed the “youngest terrorist in Belarus” for speaking out against the two presidents, neither of whom allow any criticism of their rule.
A university friend said: “We often met…and spoke a lot about studies.
“She was a very good student and never had issues with the dean’s office.”
She was a “good person, possibly quite shy”.
The friend said: “Many of us share her opinion about the war.”
Nor had she done anything to justify adding her name on a terrorist blacklist, said the friend.
Her repost has been removed.
In March an anti-war protester stormed her way on to a live state media broadcast and warned viewers not to believe the Kremlin's "propaganda".
Russia's Channel One was interrupted by an employee carrying a huge placard which read "stop the war, don't believe propaganda, they're lying to you."
Newsreader Ekaterina Andreeva was delivering her evening bulletin when the woman jumped out from behind while and producers scrambled to cut her off.
The demonstrator managed to enter the TV studio at the Ostankino Technical Center in Moscow and urged viewers that they being lied to.
Her message was written in Russian and English aimed at the channel's millions of viewers - but producers quickly switched the broadcast to a clip of a hospital as they dealt with the situation.
The woman was later identified as Channel One employee Marina Ovsyannikova and she has reportedly since been detained.
