Polish government representative Petro Mueller, commenting on the sentence against the leader of the united Belarusian opposition Svitlana Tykhanovskaya, emphasized the need for the European Union to introduce sanctions against Minsk.
This is reported by WNP.pl.
"Unfortunately, the Belarusian regime is consistently strengthening its domestic policy... The show trials that have been taking place recently, the subsequent sentences against various people show that, unfortunately, far-reaching measures must be taken against Belarus from the perspective of international sanctions" - Mueller said at a press conference on Monday.
He noted that Poland appealed to the Council of the European Union with a request to extend the sanctions currently in effect against Russia to Belarus as well.
"We are talking about economic sanctions. We believe that similar sanctions should be applied to Belarus, primarily because it also took measures or enabled military actions from the territory of Belarus by Russian troops, but also because of these actions recently, which intensified repression against opposition activists in Belarus," added the representative of the Polish government.
Also, according to Mueller, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki appealed through various European channels with a request to "include in the list of sanctions all people who participate in show trials on the territory of Belarus, whether they are prosecutors, judges or other persons who are elements of institutions". repressions near Belarus".
Earlier on Monday, as reported, the Minsk City Court passed a verdict in absentia in the criminal case involving members of the Coordination Council of the Belarusian opposition. Among others, the opposition leader and former candidate for the presidency of Belarus Svitlana Tsykhanouska was sentenced to 15 years in prison under the general regime.
Former Minister of Culture Pavlo Latushka was sentenced in absentia to 18 years in prison. Three other participants in the case - Maria Moroz, Olga Kovalkova and Serhiy Dylevsky - were each sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Svitlana Tykhanovskaya ran in the presidential elections of Belarus in 2020 instead of her husband Serhiy, who was detained during the election campaign and sentenced to 18 years in prison in December 2021.
The 2020 elections were declared rigged in favor of Lukashenka, who repressed dissenting protesters. Since that time, Tykhanovskaya has been abroad, where she carries out actual political activity as a legitimate representative of Belarus, recognized by a number of Western countries.