Belarusian opposition activist Olga Kovalkova arrived in the Polish capital of Warsaw on Saturday. She says she was forced to leave the country by Belarusian authorities.
Kovalkova is a senior member of the Belarusian Association for the Coordination of the Opposition. She was sentenced to 10 days in jail by authorities on Aug. 25. She said Saturday that authorities told her she would be arrested again if she did not leave the country.
At a press conference in Warsaw, she said, “Representatives of the militia forces and the Belarusian Interior Ministry approached me and said that if I didn’t agree to leave the country, I would face a long period of imprisonment and endless arrests.”
She said that the authorities took her to the border, from where she entered Poland and then proceeded to Warsaw. The same day she arrived in Poland, Polish authorities confirmed that Belarusian opposition leader Tikhanovskaya would visit Warsaw on Wednesday and meet with Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki.
Belarusian leader Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years, has faced a wave of opposition protests since his Aug. 9 election victory. He denies opposition and Western accusations that the vote was rigged. He has also refused to step down.
U.N. human rights experts report that they have received reports of hundreds of cases of torture, beatings, and ill-treatment of protesters by Belarusian police.
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