A Belarusian court has ordered imprisoned video blogger and opposition activist Syarhey Tsikhanouski into harsher confinement conditions after finding him in violation of unspecified prison rules.
The Vyasna human rights center said on August 11 that Tsikhanouski, who has been held in solitary confinement-type conditions in a prison colony since before he was sentenced in December 2021, will end up in a more restrictive prison.
The court in the eastern city of Mahilyou said Tsikhanouski will be transferred to prison for three years for unspecified violations.
It wasn’t immediately clear exactly what those alleged violations were.
Tsikhanouski is the husband of Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is now the widely considered to be the leader of Belarus’s opposition.
A popular video blogger, Tsikhanouski intended to challenge Alyaksandr Lukashenka who was running for re-election as president in 2020. But he was disqualified and arrested before the vote.
Tsikhanouskaya subsequently mobilized voters and won the election, according to the opposition and Western countries who say Lukashenka rigged the results.
She has been living in Lithuania since fleeing Belarus due to concerns about her safety and that of the couple's two children.
Svyatlana also confirmed the news of the harsher punishment for her husband, but she said in a post to her Telegram channel that she did not know the reasons for the decision or where he would be sent.
