The leader of the opposition is sentenced to 15 years in prison, here is what she is accused of

A court in Minsk has sentenced exiled opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and four other opposition leaders to 15 years in prison in absentia on charges widely considered to be politically motivated.

Minsk City Court on March 6 sentenced Tsikhanouskayan to 15 years in prison, while another opposition politician, Paval Latushka, to 18 years.

Three other opposition figures, Maryya Maroz, Volha Kavalkova, and Syarhey Dylevski were each sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Judge Pyatro Arlou found the five opposition politicians guilty of attempting to overthrow the Government, creating and leading an extremist group, inciting hatred and harming national security.

All five opposition figures have fled Belarus at the start of deadly mass protests held to challenge the official result of the August 2020 presidential election, which authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka claims to have won. The Belarusian opposition and Western governments say the election was rigged and the real winner of the election is Tsikhanouskaya.

Tsikhanouskaya said her trial was a "farce" and "revenge" by Lukashenka, adding that she has not been given access to court documents.

"This is how the regime 'rewarded' my work for democratic changes in Belarus," she wrote on Twitter after the decision was published.

"But today I don't think about my punishment. "I think of thousands of innocent people, arrested and sentenced to real prison terms," ??she added.

The sentencing came days after a court in Belarus extended the prison sentence of Tsikhanouskaya's husband, Syarhey Tsikhanouski, to 18 months for what it said was a "violation" of internal detention regulations.

Tsikhanouski is serving 18 years in prison on charges related to the 2020 election. He had announced his candidacy for the presidential election challenging Lukashenko, but was disqualified from the race and arrested before the election took place. After that, his wife started campaigning to become president.

Thousands of people have been arrested in protests against the election result and there have been credible reports that those arrested have been ill-treated and tortured by the security forces. Several people have died during the suppression of protests.

Lukashenka, 68, is heavily dependent on Russian support as he faces Western sanctions. The United States, the European Union and several other countries refuse to recognize Lukashenka's self-proclaimed victory in the 2020 elections.