MINSK -- A 69-year-old retired teacher has been sentenced by a Belarusian court to two years in prison for comments that "insulted" disputed leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka and a KGB officer killed in a police shoot-out at a Minsk apartment that also left an IT worker dead.
The court in the northern town of Myory handed down the sentence against Ema Stsepulyonak on November 18 after finding her guilty in a weeklong trial of insulting Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, and the dead officer.
Little is known about the September 2021 shooting that resulted in the deaths of Andrey Zeltsar, who worked for the U.S.-based IT company EPAM, and KGB officer Dzmitry Fedasyuk.
Authorities claimed at the time that “an especially dangerous criminal” had opened fire on security officers after they showed up at his apartment looking for “individuals involved in terrorist activities.”
Lukashenka has publicly chided people who posted comments on social media praising Zeltsar and criticizing Fedasyuk, saying, "We have all their accounts, and we can see who is who."
Multiple individuals have received prison terms in recent months on charges related to comments about the incident.
Belarus witnessed unprecedented anti-government protests after a presidential election in August 2020 in which Lukashenka claimed victory while rights activists and opposition politicians said the poll was rigged.
Thousands were detained in the subsequent protests and there have been credible reports of the torture and ill-treatment of detainees by security forces. Several people have died during the crackdown.
Lukashenka, 68, has leaned heavily on Russian support amid Western sanctions while punishing the opposition and arresting or forcing abroad many of its leaders.
The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka's self-declared victory.
