MINSK -- A former lecturer at the Department of Italian Language at the Minsk State Linguistic University, Natallya Dulina, has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for giving an interview to a media outlet labeled by authorities as "extremist."
The Minsk regional court pronounced Dulina's verdict and sentence on March 10, finding her guilty of assisting "extremist activities" and organizating and preparing activities that blatantly disrupt social order.
According to those who were present in the courtroom, Dulina smiled as her sentence was pronounced with her cuffed hands behind her back.
"The spring will come," she said.
The case against Dulina was launched over an interview she gave to Euroradio last year in which she talked about the ongoing crackdown on independent media and democratic institutions in the country.
It is the third case launched against a government critic after giving an interview to a media outlet that Belarusian authorities had labeled extremist.
In recent months, Belarusian courts sentenced in two separate cases a military expert Yahor Lebyadok to five years, and Darya Losik, the wife of RFE/RL's journalist Ihar Losik, to two years in prison for giving interviews to independent media outlets.
The cases highlight Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka's harsh crackdown against any dissent since an August 2020 presidential election, which he claims he won, while opposition politicians and activists say the vote was rigged.
The 68-year-old, who has been in power since 1994, has directed the campaign to arrest tens of thousands of people.
He has refused to negotiate with the opposition and many of its leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country.
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 crackdown.