Moscow, February 19. – The Belarusian justice sentenced to five years in prison the former Belarusian ambassador to various South American countries, Vladimir Astapenko, who resigned from his post in 2020 for having considered President Alexandr Lukashenko as illegitimate and joined the ranks of the opposition in exile.
The Belarusian prosecutor general’s office reported in a statement on the sentence, which was reduced to four years in prison with the amnesty law signed by the Belarusian head of state last December.
Moreover, Astapenko, who joined the opposition in exile led by Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, will not be able to hold official positions for five years and will have to pay a fine.
Belarus confiscated a dacha or country house and land to secure payment of the fine.
The former ambassador was charged in Belarus with “an attempt to seize property on a large scale, committed by an official using his official powers”.
Astapenko resigned on the day of Lukashenko’s inauguration on September 23 from his post as ambassador, believing that the president’s “lack of legitimacy” did not allow him to carry out his work.
The president claimed a sixth term in August 2020 with more than 80% of the vote against just 10% for Tijanóvskaya, in elections described as fraudulent by the opposition and the West.
That same month erupted the largest anti-government protests in Belarusian history and an unprecedented crackdown on peaceful protesters and dissidents.
Astapenko, who was appointed ambassador to Argentina in 2018 and simultaneously to Chile, Paraguay and Peru, said Lukashenko’s lack of legitimacy stems from a series of violations of Belarusians’ fundamental rights and freedoms.
After resigning, he was supposed to return to his family in Minsk, but he never returned to the Belarusian capital and went into exile in Warsaw, according to the independent newspaper Zerkalo.