Sentence for Belarusian-American extended as Belarus cracks down on dissent

TALLINN, Estonia — 

A Belarusian-American has had his situation word extended to a full of 13 1/2 years successful the latest determination successful a relentless crackdown connected dissent by Belarus' repressive government, rights activists said Monday.

Yuras Zyankovich, a lawyer who has dual Belarusian and U.S. citizenship, has been held down bars since 2021. He was convicted connected accusations of plotting to assassinate Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and prehend powerfulness and fixed an 11-year condemnation successful September 2022. He past had six months added to his condemnation aboriginal that year.

In August, a tribunal successful Belarus handed Zyankovich, 46, an further two-year condemnation connected charges of “malicious disobedience to the situation administration,” according to the Viasna quality rights group, a ruling that became known lone now.

The authorities person denied Zyankovich entree to a lawyer since March.

Zyankovich repeatedly went connected hunger onslaught and his wellness has earnestly deteriorated successful custody, according to Viasna, which said that helium faced harassment and intimidation by situation authorities.

Last month, Zyankovich featured successful a propaganda movie aired by authorities tv that described the purported crippled helium was convicted of.

The U.S. Embassy successful Belarus condemned airing the documentary and rejected the “baseless claims” it contained successful a connection successful September. It emphasized that it volition “continue to advocator for the improved payment of this detained American.”

In 2020, Belarus was rocked by its largest-ever protests pursuing an predetermination that gave Lukashenko a sixth word successful bureau but was condemned by the absorption and the West arsenic fraudulent. According to Viasna, 65,000 radical person been arrested since the protests began and hundreds of thousands person fled Belarus.

Belarus has much than 1,300 governmental prisoners successful Belarus, according to Viasna, including the group’s laminitis and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski.