The trial against Svetlana Tichanovskaya begins on Tuesday while the opposition leader herself is a guest at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
She fled the country after the August 2020 election when she ran against President Aleksandr Lukashenko and lost the election, which is believed to have been rigged. Tikhanovskaya continued to be the front figure of the opposition to power in Minsk from her new home in Lithuania.
Mass trials
Many of her friends, and many of those who are part of opposition movements, have or will face Belarusian law.
— These trials are not trials. They are imaginations, a farce, and have nothing to do with justice, she said in an interview with the AFP news agency on Monday.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya reluctantly took on the role of opposition leader after her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky was prevented from challenging authoritarian leader Lukashenko. Husband Tikhanovsky was arrested when he announced his candidacy, and has since been sentenced to lengthy prison terms in summary trials.
— It is about personal revenge from Lukashenko and his accomplices. It is not only aimed at me, but at everyone who is in opposition, says Tichanovskaya.
High treason and conspiracy
She is accused of high treason, conspiracy and trying to seize power in Belarus. In total, it is about ten charges. She has tried to get in touch with the lawyer who will represent her, a lawyer appointed by the court.
Tikhanovskaya has not received a reply.
“I don’t even know what my so-called lawyer will do in court, I don’t know how he will defend me,” says Tichanovskaya.