Iryna Slaunikava, went on trial on charges of leading an extremist group

Slau­nika­va was first arrest­ed along with her hus­band Alyak­san­dr Loy­ka in late Octo­ber. The cou­ple was sen­tenced to 30 days in jail on charges of dis­trib­ut­ing extrem­ist mate­ri­als and minor hooli­gan­ism.

After serv­ing their jail terms, Slau­nika­va was hit with the new charges for which she went on tri­al on June 23. If con­vict­ed, she may face up to sev­en years in prison. Loy­ka was not arrest­ed a sec­ond time.

In pow­er since 1994, Lukashen­ka, 67, has tight­ened his grip on the coun­try since the 2020 elec­tion by arrest­ing — some­times vio­lent­ly — tens of thou­sands of peo­ple. Fear­ing for their safe­ty, most oppo­si­tion mem­bers have been forced to flee the coun­try.

The West has refused to rec­og­nize the results of the elec­tion and does not con­sid­er Lukashen­ka to be the coun­try’s legit­i­mate leader. Many coun­tries have imposed sev­er­al rounds of sanc­tions against his regime in response to the sup­pres­sion of dis­sent in the coun­try.