Belarusian-American has his prison sentence extended amid continuous crackdown on dissent in Belarus

Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian-American has had his prison term extended to a total of 13 1/2 years in the latest move in a multi-pronged crackdown on dissent by Belarus’ authoritarian government. Yuras Zyankovich, a lawyer who has dual Belarusian and U.S. citizenship, has been held behind bars since 2021. He was convicted on accusations of plotting to assassinate Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison in 2022. In August, a court in Belarus handed Zyankovich, 46 an additional two-year sentence on charges of disobeying prison authorities, according to the Viasna human rights group, which said Monday that the verdict only became known now.