Belarusian activist Lizaveta Makrydzina has gone on trial over her participation in 2020 mass rallies challenging the results of a presidential election that announced the country's authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the winner in the face of opposition claims the voting was rigged.
The Kastrychnik district court in the western Belarusian city of Hrodna started the trial of the 25-year-old IT specialist on July 23.
Makrydzina was arrested after she came to Belarus for a visit from Poland, where she settled several years earlier. She was charged with taking part in unsanctioned rallies. If found guilty, she faces up to three years in prison.
Separately on July 23, the Vitsebsk regional court in the country's northeast started the trial in absentia of businessman Uladzimer Zakharau, the Vyasna human rights center said.
Zakharau was charged with discrediting Belarus and the evasion of taxes and insurance fees.
His supporters and human rights groups say the charges are politically motivated.
The MAYDAY website said on July 23 that a court in the eastern city of Mahilyou sentenced political prisoner Paval Belaholau to three years and four months last month for "slandering" Lukashenka.
According to MAYDAY, Judge Tatsyana Rakhmanenka sentenced the 35-year-old activist on June 20 after finding him guilty of posting a "false" comment on YouTube about Lukashenka, who has run the country with an iron fist for 30 years.
Belaholau was previously handed a 30-month prison term in 2022 on a charge of insulting an official and inciting social hatred online during the unprecedented anti-Lukashenka rallies in 2020. Human rights groups recognized Belaholau as a political prisoner at the time.
Lukashenka, 69, has been in power since 1994. He has tightened his grip on the country since the August 2020 election by arresting -- sometimes violently -- more than 35,000 people. Fearing for their safety, most opposition members have fled 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 sanctions against Lukashenka's regime in response to the suppression of dissent in the country.
