Status: 07/06/2021 9:56 a.m.
The ex-banker Babariko wanted to compete against the Belarusian President Lukashenko in last year’s election – then the opposition activist was charged. He now has to be imprisoned for 14 years for alleged corruption.
According to his supporters, the Belarusian opposition activist Viktor Babariko has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption. His supporters announced on the 57-year-old’s Twitter account that he had to serve his sentence in a high-security prison camp.
The public prosecutor’s office had accused the former head of Belgazprombank of accepting bribes, among other things. A verdict in the amount had previously been expected from the ranks of his supporters. Babariko himself had denied any wrongdoing. He said he believed the allegations and the entire process to be politically motivated.
Arrested a few weeks before the election
Babariko ran for the presidential election in Belarus last year and was considered the main challenger to incumbent Alexander Lukashenko. He was arrested a few weeks before the vote.
Babariko’s arrest led several camps of government critics to band together and support the candidacy of Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who is now in exile. The election in August, overshadowed by massive allegations of fraud, won, according to the election commission, Lukashenko, mass protests against him were brutally suppressed by the security forces.