MINSK -- The Minsk City Court has rejected appeals filed by the leader of the Belarusian opposition United Civic Party (AHP) Mikalay Kazlou and his two associates against their imprisonment for participating in a march protesting the official results of a disputed August 2020 presidential election.
The court ruled on January 31 that the sentences of Kazlou, the leader of the AHP's branch in Minsk, Aksana Alyakseyeva, and human rights defender Antanina Kavalyova remain unchanged as they were properly adjudicated by the Pershamayski district court of Minsk in November.
Kazlou was handed 30 months in prison, Alyakseyeva, received 18 months in prison, and Kavalyova was sentenced to one year in prison after Judge Anastasia Kulik found them guilty of taking part in actions that disrupted civil order.
The trio was arrested in late July. Kazlou pleaded not guilty, Kavalyova pleaded partially guilty, and Alyakseyeva pleaded guilty.
On October 31, another court in Minsk sentenced three other AHP members -- Andrus Asmalouski, Dziyana Charnushina, and Artur Smalyakou -- to prison terms of between two and three years on the same charges.
The crimes in both cases stem from a rally on August 23, 2020, that was attended by at least 100,000 people who challenged the results of the presidential poll and a brutal police crackdown that started shortly after Lukashenka was declared the winner. The opposition says the election was rigged.
Security forces used deadly force as they violently detained tens of thousands of people.
Many of Belarus's opposition leaders have been jailed or forced into exile since the August 2020 presidential election. Several protesters have been killed and there have also been credible reports of torture during a widening security crackdown.
Belarusian authorities have also clamped down on civil society, shutting down several nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets.
The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown ordered by officials.
AHP is one of the oldest opposition political parties in Belarus and has been in operation since 1995.
