Belarus jails activist for 4 years for election unrest

A Belarus court on Thursday sentenced an opposition activist to four years in jail for taking part in mass unrest during a rally last December against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Vasily Parfenkov, 27, was the first to be tried of about 30 people held after a police crackdown on a December 19 protest rally in Minsk and who include four opposition presidential candidates. The prosecution had asked for a six-year sentence.

The police action triggered fresh Western sanctions against Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet republic since 1994 and whose re-election was denounced as fraudulent by the opposition and international monitors.