Potential Belarusian presidential challenger remanded in custody
A Belarusian court has remanded in custody Viktor Babariko, a potential opponent of president Alexander Lukashenko in the upcoming election.
Lukashenko, who has led the country since 1994, earlier announced that he is running for his sixth term in the August 9 presidential election.
The court upheld the pretrial detention of Babariko, who is charged with financial crimes, his lawyer said.
Babariko stepped down as CEO to the Russian-owned Belgazprombank to run against Lukashenko. He was arrested last month together with his son Eduard and 15 executives as part of a tax evasion and money-laundering probe. Belarusian authorities took control of the bank.
Babariko said the arrests are politically motivated. The rights watchdog, Amnesty International, said it believes that “Viktor and Eduard Babariko are prisoners of conscience, prosecuted solely for the peaceful expression of their political opinions”.
Babariko’s election campaign said it collected nearly 435,000 signatures, much more than the minimum of 100,000 required for candidacy. However, the Central Election Commission said that he received only 165,744 signatures, a day after election authorities rejected tens of thousands of signatures he and other opposition candidates had collected.
The commission added that Lukashenko collected 1,939,572 signatures, nearly three times more than all other five candidates allowed to run against him combined.
Several opposition bloggers, including opposition leader Nikolai Statkevich, have been sentenced to 15 days in jail, following protests against Lukashenko’s seeking of another term.