Former presidential candidate Valery Tsepkalo tried in absentia and sentenced to 17 years in Belarus
The Belarusian politician Valery Tsepkalo (also spelled “Tsapkala”) has been sentenced to 17 years in a high-security penal colony. A Minsk court tried him in absentia.
Charges against Tsepkalo included nine different kinds of felony, including calls to seize state power, creating and financing an extremist organization, and defamation of the current president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Tsepkalo had planned to run for president of Belarus in 2020. When the election authority refused to register him as a candidate, he left the country, fearing arrest.
Tsepkalo’s spouse, Veronika Tsepkalo, then formed a “women’s triumvirate” together with the politicians Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Maria Kalesnikava. After the failed election, Tsikhanouskaya was forced to leave the country, and Kalesnikava was arrested and later went to prison.
Earlier this year, a Belarusian court sentenced Tsikhanouskaya to 15 years, also in absentia.
