MADRID, January 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Belarusian Interior Ministry has listed several organizations linked to Svetlana Tijanovskaya, one of the main opposition figures of Alexander Lukashenko’s government, on a “black list” of extremist groups.

The designated organization was the Coordinating Council that Tijanovskaya set up in connection with the 2020 elections, the results of which were widely questioned by the international community, Svetlana Tijanovskaya’s Team and other related structures, which banned their activities and their spread on social networks.

Days ago trials ‘in absentia’ began in Minsk against Tijanovskaya and four other opposition leaders – Pavel Latushko, Maria Moroz, Olga Kovalkova and Sergei Dylevsky – all accused of conspiring to seize power by force and of leading an extremist organization to that end.

Tijanovskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania, is also accused of treason against the state, while her husband, blogger and opposition member Sergei Tijanovski, is serving 18 years in a maximum security prison for the riots and anti-government protests. They broke up after the election.

In August 2020, Lukashenko successfully revalidated his sixth consecutive term in office since 1994, the year Belarus officially declared its formation as a state following its exit from the Soviet Union. In this last election, he won with 80 percent of the vote, rejected by the opposition and the international community led by the United States, Britain, Canada and the European Union.