A court in Belarus has sentenced an activist who assisted Belarusians facing persecution flee to Lithuania to 4 1/2 years in prison.
A court in the town of Shchuchyn in the western region of Hrodna sentenced Yauhen Buynitski on May 31 after finding him guilty of illegally crossing the state border in a group. The court also ordered Buynitski to pay a 3,520-ruble ($1,040) fine.
Buynitski was arrested in August 2021 for assisting Belarusians cross the border into Lithuania in the wake of Minsk's crackdown on dissent following mass protests against the official results of an August 2020 presidential poll that handed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term.
The Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
Buynitski is one of many Belarusians who have faced multiple charges linked to the mass protests against Lukashenka following the controversial presidential election, which the opposition says was rigged.
Thousands have been arrested and much of the opposition leadership has been jailed or forced into exile.
Several protesters have been killed and there have also been credible reports of torture during a widening security crackdown.
Belarusian authorities have also shut down several nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets.
The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the ensuing crackdown.
