MAHILYOU, Belarus — Belarusian opposition politician Paval Sevyarynets has been sentenced to seven years in prison by a regional court in the eastern city of Mahilyou on a criminal charge of “organizing mass unrest.”
Protests in Belarus
RFE/RL: Belarusian court sentences opposition politician, pro-democracy activists
Belarus opposition figure Pavel Severinets smiles from the defendant's cage at a courthouse in the town of Mogilev, some 200 km east of Minsk, on May 25, 2021, as he and six fellow co-defendants activists were sentenced to jail terms of four to seven years in a trial held behind closed doors, after being found guilty of taking part in "mass unrest", referring to the historic protests that erupted after a disputed presidential election last August. - Severinets, a 44-year-old who co-chairs the unregistered Belarusian Christian Democracy party, was arrested in June last year after a picket in support of opposition presidential candidates. The court found him guilty of "organising mass unrest" even though he has been in detention for the past 11 months and did not take part in the mass demonstrations.
