A show trial carries with it a noxious whiff of Soviet times and in the case of Belarus, a country trapped by its past, the allusion is wholly appropriate. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, elected president in 2020 in a contest stolen by Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, was accused of treason by a court in Minsk last week. Her trial is a sham and a farce. The opposition leader is one among countless victims of an illegitimate rogue regime that oppresses its people and threatens the security of Europe.
Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has long been notorious for his authoritarian rule. But the situation has steadily deteriorated since the huge pro-democracy protests three years ago that nearly brought him down. Belarus now holds about 1,500 political prisoners. Tsikhanouskaya is not among them; she is being tried in absentia. But many others are less fortunate, including her husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, whom she replaced as opposition leader after his arrest. He was later jailed for 18 years.
