TALLINN, Estonia — Belarusian authorities on Monday demanded prolonged jail phrases for the nation’s exiled opposition leaders, amid a continued crackdown on dissent within the ex-Soviet republic.

Prosecutors demanded 19-year jail sentences for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Pavel Latushka, in addition to fines of $15,000 and $10,000 respectively.

Tsikhanouskaya, Latushka and three different opposition figures are being tried in absentia within the Belarusian capital, Minsk, on expenses of conspiring to overthrow the federal government, creating and main an extremist group, inciting hatred and harming nationwide safety.

The prosecution additionally sought 12-year sentences for Maryya Maroz, Volha Kavalkova and Siarhei Dylevski.

“It has nothing to do with justice, it’s simply private revenge towards me (and) others who’re opposing the regime. It’s going to solely make us battle even more durable,” Tsikhanouskaya stated in a tweet on Monday.

All 5 left Belarus following the unprecedented mass protests in 2020, after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko secured his sixth time period in workplace in a disputed election. The opposition and the West have denounced the vote as rigged.

The demonstrations that adopted have been the biggest and probably the most sustained since Lukashenko assumed workplace in 1994. He has run the nation with an iron fist ever since. His authorities unleashed a brutal crackdown towards the protesters, detaining greater than 35,000 and beating hundreds.

The nation’s most distinguished human rights advocate and the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ales Bialiatski, was amongst these arrested. He’s dealing with 12 years in jail if convicted.

Tsikhanouskaya left Belarus underneath stress from the authorities shortly after the election, wherein she ran towards Lukashenko as a substitute of her husband, well-known opposition politician Siarhei Tsikhanouski. Tsihkanouski was arrested in 2020 and has been sentenced to 18 years in jail.

On Monday, a courtroom in Belarus added 18 extra months to Tsikhanouski’s sentence over alleged violations of jail rules.

Tsikhanouski maintained his innocence through the trial that was held behind closed doorways, in accordance with the Viasna human rights middle, Belarus’ most distinguished human rights group. For 2 months, the politician was held “in inhumane situations” in an isolation cell, the group stated.

“I am actually wanting ahead to a time after we free Siarhei and all political prisoners from this hell,” Tsikhanouskaya stated in an internet assertion Monday.

The Viasna group has designated 1,443 individuals behind bars in Belarus as political prisoners.