Belarus president visits political opponents in prison

Belarus’ president visited a prison to talk to opposition activists, who have been jailed for challenging his re-election that was widely seen as manipulated and triggered two months of protests.

Euronews reports that President Lukashenko spent more than four hours talking to his jailed political foes at the Minsk prison that belongs to Belarus’ State Security Committee, which still goes under its Soviet-era name, KGB.

Lukashenko’s office said that “the goal of the president was to hear everyone’s opinion.” Among 11 jailed activists who attended the meeting were several members of the opposition’s Coordination Council and Viktor Babariko, the former head of a major Russia-owned bank. Babariko aspired to challenge Lukashenko but was barred from the race and remained in jail since his arrest in May on charges he dismissed as political.

Lukashenko’s landslide re-election in the Aug. 9 vote was widely seen as manipulated amid widespread public frustration with the Belarusian leader’s 26-year authoritarian rule, his cavalier response to the coronavirus pandemic and the deteriorating economy.

Euronews