A Belarusian court sentenced opposition leader Sergei Tikhanovsky to 18 years in prison. Tikhanovsky helped rally major protests against President Alexander Lukashenko but was arrested and unable to run against him in the 2020 election. His wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, took on the authoritarian leader instead, becoming the face of the opposition, but was forced into exile in Lithuania following the widely contested election, in which both she and Lukashenko claimed victory. She spoke following the verdict against her husband.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: “I will continue to defend the person I love, who has become a leader for millions of Belarusians. I will try to do something very difficult, perhaps impossible, to bring closer the moment when we will see him in the new Belarus.”