the swimmer Aliaksandra Herasimenia and the activist Aleksandr Opeinik have been sentenced to 12 years in prison for leading the criticism of Belarusian athletes against the regime Alexander Lukashenkopresident of the country.
The world champion (won gold in 100m freestyle in Shanghai 2011) and triple olympic medalist (silver in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle at London 2012 and bronze in the 50-meter freestyle at Rio 2016) is one of the founders of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund (FBSD), an association formed to help Belarusian athletes who they are persecuted in their country for publicly protesting against his government
According to the Belta news agency, Herasimenia and Opeinik have been sentenced in absentia (they were not in court). to 12 years in jail for calling for sanctions on the country and other actions that can supposedly endanger national security.
Herasimenia was one of the first athletes to denounce Lukashenko’s excesses and, above all, the support that her country gave to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “It has never been our enemy, it is a sister nation,” she said in the first days of the invasion.
His reaction has been to take it with a sense of humor. «They read the sentence, laughed and continued celebrating. As they say, they can even shoot me in absentia!», joked the swimmer in the first publication on instagram after the news, in which her relatives appear in the photo.
Since her retirement, Herasimenia has turned to activism and has been one of the main voices against Lukashenko. She lives in exile in Lithuania.
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