MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2021) Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday met with Belarusian opposition figure Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and expressed his country's solidarity with civil society in the East European nation, the Spanish government said.
At the meeting, Sanchez and Tikhanovskaya "exchanged views on the development of recent events in Belarus, the need for democratic reforms in the country, and the situation with political prisoners." The Spanish prime minister also expressed support for the sanctions imposed by Brussels against Minsk.
He reiterated "Spain's commitment and solidarity with civil society to achieve a democratic future, his call for an end to violence by the regime of [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko and the immediate release of those arbitrarily� imprisoned, as well as the establishment of responsibility for serious violations of human rights."
In addition, Sanchez expressed "deep personal solidarity" with Tikhanovskaya, whose husband Sergei Tikhanovsky has been imprisoned in Belarus since May 2020 for plotting mass riots across the country following the 2020 presidential election, which saw a landslide victory of incumbent Lukashenko.
The opposition rejected the official results, claiming Tikhanovskaya was the true winner. In the meantime, Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania amid the protests, keeps rallying support from European leaders against Lukashenko's ruling.
