Prominent Belarus activist claims authorities threatened to kill her
10 September 2020, 12:54
Opposition activists are coming under increasing pressure.
A prominent opposition activist who resisted her forcible expulsion from Belarus by ripping up her passport has accused authorities of threatening to kill her amid their efforts to end a month of protests against the country’s authoritarian president.
Maria Kolesnikova said in a formal complaint released by her lawyer that agents of Belarus’ state security committee put a bag on her head and drove her to the border with Ukraine before she fought her removal from Belarus and was jailed.
“They threatened to kill me,” Ms Kolesnikova said. “They stated that if I refuse to leave the territory of Belarus voluntarily, they will get me out of the country anyway – alive or in fragments.”
Opposition activists came under increasing pressure this week as Belarus marked a month since massive demonstrations broke out against President Alexander Lukashenko’s re-election to a sixth term.
The opposition rejects the country’s vote in August as rigged, and the protesters demanding Mr Lukashenko’s resignation represent an unprecedented challenge to the Belarusian leader’s 26-year rule.
Ms Kolesnikova is a leading member of the Coordination Council created by opposition activists to push for a new election. She was detained on Monday and destroyed her passport in a no-man’s land between Ukraine and Belarus the next day to prevent her expulsion.
Ms Kolesnikova, who remains jailed in Minsk, is accused of undermining national security as part of a criminal probe against senior members of the opposition Coordination Council. All of the council’s senior members except for Nobel Prize-winning writer Svetlana Alexievich have been jailed or forcibly expelled from the country.
Speaking to prosecutors, Mr Lukashenko urged them to take tougher action to end ongoing protests.
The 66-year-old has firmly shrugged off the opposition demands to step down. Mr Lukashenko has dismissed the opposition as Western stooges and rejected demands from the United States and the European Union to engage in a dialogue with the opposition.
