Belarus Opposition Leader Gets a Five-Year Sentence

Andrei Sannikov, a former deputy foreign minister, is the highest-profile politician to be sentenced in a series of trials that has been purging the leadership of the beleaguered opposition in the former Soviet republic.

The courtroom erupted in shouts of “Shame!” and “Freedom!” from Mr. Sannikov’s supporters when the judge read the verdict, according to Radio Liberty.

The demonstration was called to protest the victory of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko in a presidential election last December, after independent observers documented large-scale fraud. Mr. Sannikov, 57, was a candidate in that election.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Minsk, for the protest, which international observers and independent journalists said was largely peaceful until helmeted riot police officers wielding clubs and shields dispersed it. The government, however, accused Mr. Sannikov and other opposition leaders of fueling mass unrest that led to the breaking down of doors of a government building in Minsk.

The resulting crackdown, observers say, has been the most severe of Mr. Lukashenko’s nearly 17-year rule. Seven of the nine opposition candidates were among the hundreds arrested after the protest, and over two dozen opposition figures have been convicted and sentenced to up to four years in prison.

Mr. Sannikov has spent the last five months in a cell at the prison of the K.G.B. in Minsk.

In testimony, Mr. Sannikov accused prison guards of torturing him and other opposition figures, depriving them of sleep, exposing them to severe cold and threatening family members in an effort to secure confessions.

Mr. Sannikov accused the head of the K.G.B., Vadim Zaitsev, of threatening to harm his wife and young son if he did not agree to give incriminating testimony.

“When I refused to affirm this lie that was offered to me, when I refused to write a petition, Zaitsev literally said the following: ‘Then harsh measures will be taken against your wife and child,’?” Mr. Sannikov said, according to a transcript of his testimony published to the opposition Web site, Charter 97.

Mr. Sannikov was arrested along with his wife, Irina Khalip, a journalist, after the December protest. Both said they were beaten. After their arrest, the authorities threatened to take custody of their son, Danil, but eventually allowed Ms. Khalip’s parents to care for the boy, who will turn 4 on Sunday. Ms. Khalip was later released from prison under house arrest, and is now on trial.

Mr. Lukashenko and his government have portrayed Mr. Sannikov and the opposition as traitors who tried to orchestrate a coup with the backing of Western governments.

In recent months, the president has blamed the opposition and its Western backers for the country’s increasingly dire economic situation, although most opposition members are in jail, in exile or in hiding. Mr. Lukashenko has also said the opposition was linked to the terrorist bombing at a Minsk subway station last month that killed 14 people.

Anton Zagorovsky, the prosecutor in Mr. Sannikov’s trial, had requested that the opposition leader be sentenced to seven years in prison.

“From November to December 20, Sannikov and others organized mass unrest, accompanied by pogroms, preparations for arson, the destruction of property, violence against people and armed resistance against representatives of the government,” Mr. Zagorovsky said in closing remarks on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported.

Independent observers have challenged this version of events, which has nevertheless been zealously repeated by officials and the government-controlled media. The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions against Belarussian officials as punishment for the crackdown and have demanded the release of Mr. Sannikov and other opposition members.

Even Belarus’s once stalwart ally Russia has criticized the government for its handling of the protest.

Representatives from the United States and the European Union were present at Mr. Sannikov’s sentencing on Saturday.

The United States and the European bloc condemned the verdict. A State Department spokesman called the decision “clearly politically motivated.”

“Belarus should immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners and cease continuing human rights violations against critics of the government, who remain at risk of harassment and arbitrary arrest,” the spokesman, Mark Toner, said.

Mr. Sannikov’s lawyers called the 10-day trial against him a farce. Witnesses provided no evidence that Mr. Sannikov or others had engaged in violence as the prosecutor contended, the lawyers said.

Four other opposition activists on trial with Mr. Sannikov were also convicted and sentenced on Saturday to between 3 and 3 ? years in prison.

Speaking to Radio Liberty after the verdict, Mr. Sannikov’s mother, Alla, said she was proud of her son.