Tsikhanouskaya: Belarus has become a KGB prison in the center of Europe

Tsikhanouskaya, 40, a former English teacher, fled to neighbouring Lithuania in 2020 after running against incumbent leader Alexander Lukashenko in a presidential election, which official results showed Lukashenko won by a landslide.

She and the opposition said at the time that the results had been doctored to hand victory to Lukashenko instead of herself. Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for nearly 30 years, denied the claim.

Mass protests against Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia's President Vladimir Putin, then erupted which his security forces suppressed, locking up his opponents or forcing them to flee.

The authorities put Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition's de-facto head, on trial in absentia in January, accusing her and other opposition figures of trying to seize power in an unconstitutional way.

Belta, the state news agency, said a court in Minsk had sentenced Tsikhanouskaya to 15 years in a prison camp after finding her guilty of treason and conspiracy to seize power.

The same court handed an 18-year prison sentence to Pavel Latushko, a prominent member of the Belarusian opposition council, and 12-year jail sentences to three other activists convicted of being part of the same plot, Belta reported.

"15 years of prison. This is how the regime 'rewarded' my work for democratic changes in Belarus," Tsikhanouskaya said on Twitter.

"But today I don't think about my own sentence. I think about thousands of innocents, detained & sentenced to real prison terms. I won't stop until each of them is released."

Tsikhanouskaya's comments on the verdict were also published at her official website.

"I am not surprised by the so-called judgement against me today. I don't feel sad, because I am safe and I can continue my work for change in Belarus. But I feel bad about thousands of those in Belarus who are sentenced to real prison terms. Their voices are heard less and less. But i will not let them fade out, and my sentence is a good occasion to remind the world about the thousands of victims of Lukashenka’s terror," the Belarusian dissident said.

"It seems that the dictator has nothing else to offer but trumped up charges, kangaroo courts and more violent repression. Along with me, my husband Siarhei, and our Nobel Prize Winner, Ales Biliatski, the regime continues its show trials. Empowered by a sense of impunity, Lukashenka arrests and tortures anyone he wants. All of Belarus has become a prison – a KGB prison in the center of Europe," Tsikhanouskaya stressed.

"But I also see some positivity in today’s court decision. It shows the vulnerability and fragility of the regime. Even now, 2,5 years since the beginning our our revolution, the regime behaves like hundreds of thousands people are still standing in front of his palace, demanding the freedom that is their right," she added.

Rights activists estimate about 1,500 people are in jail in Belarus on politically motivated charges.

Tsikhanouskaya's own husband, Syarhei, is serving an 18-year jail term after being found guilty in 2021 of organising mass unrest in a ruling she said was political revenge and part of a crackdown by Lukashenko on anyone he viewed as a threat.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Ales Bialiatski was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday by a court in Minsk in a trial condemned in the West as a "sham".

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has accused the West of trying to destabilise Belarus and promised to crack down hard on any new attempts to challenge his rule.

Poland's MFA spokesman Łukasz Jasina said on Twitter: "The draconian verdicts in absentia for the leaders of democratic Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Pavel Latushka, Volha Kavalkova, Syarhei Dylevsky and Maria Moroz mock the law".

"Authorities in Minsk will not deter Belarusian society or its aspirations for freedom and democracy," he added.

Jasina also told TVN24 that Monday's ruling "is a proof of a certain desperation, a proof that Lukashenko is now using only symbols to reach those who fight against him".

"He cannot reach them otherwise, but at least he can force the court to issue such a ruling. This is a proof that Lukashenko is scared of these people. If he weren't, he wouldn't coerce the court into something of a symbolic meaning," he argued.

According to Jasina, "each of Lukashenko's fears, every such action on his part, brings the return of democracy closer for our eastern neighbours".

Polish MFA spokesman assured that "Tsikhanouskaya resides permanently in Vilnius and travels our democratic world freely". He added that Pavel Latushko "is safe here in Warsaw, they are not in any danger".