http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36656-2004Dec30.html?nav=headlines
Belarus Imprisons Opposition Politician Reuters Thursday, December 30, 2004; 3:05 PM MINSK (Reuters) - A top opposition politician in ex-Soviet Belarus was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday in what he denounced as an attempt to block his drive to make the ex-Soviet state more democratic. Mikhail Marinich, who ran against President Alexander Lukashenko in 1991 elections, was detained in April by the state security service, still known by its communist-era initials KGB. An allegation of illegally owning weapons was dropped for lack of evidence and he was convicted of stealing office equipment given to his liberal think-tank by the U.S. embassy. The embassy earlier said it had no objections to Marinich's actions, although under the court ruling he must return the equipment to the embassy. "This process is a politically driven prosecution, brought for my active work in civil society, for seeing Belarus developing on European lines, for putting forward my candidacy in the presidential elections," Marinich, 64, told the court. Some analysts have suggested the prosecution was driven by Lukashenko's desire to remove a potential rival since Marinich has developed close ties in Moscow. Russia is Belarus' closest ally but ties have cooled recently, and some observers have suggested it could support an opposition candidate in elections set for 2006. Lukashenko won an internationally criticized referendum this year allowing him to stand for a third term in the poll. His allies won a simultaneous parliamentary election. The former farm boss, who has run the country along Soviet lines since he came to power in 1994, has pledged to crack down on corruption and last year ordered prosecutors to pay special attention to opposition politicians. The West accuses Lukashenko of stifling the independent press and cracking down on dissent and the European Union has slapped travel bans on top officials. The EU has also frozen high-level contacts with Belarus, a neighbor since the trading bloc expanded earlier this year. Washington also criticized the conduct of elections in the increasingly isolated state. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/