Washington analyst faces up to three years’ jail in Belarus

MINSK: A high-profile analyst and strategist who has advised presidential candidates in the US and Russia has been charged with helping organise mass unrest in Belarus and faces up to three years in prison, his lawyer said on Saturday.

Vitali Shkliarov, who has worked on US Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign and advised the Russian opposition, was detained in Belarus in late July and arrested for two months.

Harvard University fellow Shkliarov’s lawyer said he had been charged with organising actions violating public order ahead of Sunday’s tense presidential election in Belarus. Lawyer Anton Gashinsky said Shkliarov’s arrest did not appear to be Belarusian authorities scare tactics on the eve of the vote, saying Minsk wanted the 44-political analyst to stand trial.

"This is a very serious case," Gashinsky told AFP.

He said Shkliarov denied any guilt, saying he is being punished for commenting on Belarusian politics ahead of the election.