Two leading opposition figures who challenged Belarus’s discredited presidential polls have been jailed for trying to threaten national security and seize power.
Protests in Belarus
BBC: Belarus jail terms for opposition figures Kolesnikova and Znak
Maria Kolesnikova, the last remaining protest leader still in Belarus, smiles inside the defendants' cage at the opening of her trial on charges of undermining national security, conspiring to seize power and creating an extremist group, in Minsk on August 4, 2021. - Kolesnikova, a 39-year-old former flute player in the country's philharmonic orchestra and the only protest leader still in Belarus, has become a symbol of the protest movement in Belarus where Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been cracking down on opponents since unprecedented protests erupted after last year's elections, deemed unfair by the West. (Photo by Ramil NASIBULIN / BELTA / AFP)
