MINSK (Reuters) - A top opposition politician in ex-Soviet Belarus was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday in what he denounced as an attempt to block his drive to make the ex-Soviet state more democratic.
Mikhail Marinich, who ran against President Alexander Lukashenko in 1991 elections, was detained in April by the state security service, still known by its communist-era initials KGB.
An allegation of illegally owning weapons was dropped for lack of evidence and he was convicted of stealing office equipment given to his liberal think-tank by the U.S. embassy.
The embassy earlier said it had no objections to Marinich's actions, although under the court ruling he must return the equipment to the embassy.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7209814
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