DATE:
02/03/2011
The Associated Press
MINSK, Belarus - A leading Belarus opposition figure's press secretary has been sentenced to four years in prison in connection with demonstrations that broke out after December's disputed presidential election.
More than 700 people, including seven presidential candidates, were arrested during protests over the result of the election, in which authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the overwhelming winner.
A court on Thursday handed down the sentence to Alexander Otroshenkov, press secretary for candidate Andrei Sannikov, for participating in mass disorder.
Sannikov was beaten by police at the protest and arrested; he remains in jail pending trial
The massive arrests prompted the European Union and the United States to impose travel sanctions on Lukashenko and other top Belarusian officials and to freeze their assets.
Source:
http://www.cjbk.com/InternationalNews/Article.aspx?id=265893
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