Canada sanctions Belarus on 3rd anniversary of Lukashenko's discredited election

Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Canada has imposed sanctions targeting Belarus on the third anniversary of the European nation's widely discredited re-election of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to a sixth term in office.

The sanctions by Global Affairs Canada were announced Wednesday as the United States, Britain, the European Union and New Zealand enforced similar punitive measures targeting the Lukashenko regime to coincide with the grim anniversary.

Lukashenko was elected to a sixth five-year term on Aug. 9, 2020, in a contest that democratic nations have rejected for being neither free nor fair.

Protests erupted in Minsk after the election results were announced and the demonstrators were met with a bloody crackdown by the Lukashenko regime.

According to Human Rights Watch, nearly 7,000 protesters and bystanders were rounded up in a four-day span and were held "in inhuman and degrading conditions." The U.S.-based nonprofit said hundreds were subjected to torture and ill treatment. At least three people died that August due to police actions, it said.

The democratic allies have repeatedly sanctioned Belarus over its trampling of human rights and then again following its support of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin launched from within Lukashenko's borders on Feb. 24, 2022.

On Wednesday, Ottawa hit with sanctions nine Belarusian government officials, judges and regime supporters accused of being complicit in Minsk's ongoing human rights abuses and Russia's war.

"It has been three years since the fraudulent Aug. 9, 2020, Belarusian presidential election, which followed a campaign marred by systematic voter repression, including state-sponsored violence against protestors, activists and journalists. Since then, the grave injustices carried out by the Belarusian government against its own people have not stopped," Global Affairs Canada said in a statement.

"Canada condemns in the strongest possible terms the Belarusian regime's support of Vladimir Putin's unprovoked and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine, which has killed and injured thousands, displaced millions, disrupted the global economy and exacerbated global problems such as food and energy security."

Among those targeted include Ivan Mikhailovich Eismant, head of Belarusian state television, as well as its Ministry of Defense, Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus and military manufacturing and technology companies.

"There can be no impunity for human rights abusers, and the Belarusian regime's support for the Russian leadership's brazen acts will not go unpunished. We will continue to work with our allies to collectively respond to these egregious and destabilizing acts," Mélanie Joly, minister of Foreign Affairs, said.

Since 2014, the year Russian illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Canada has sanctioned more than 2,600 people and entities in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova accused of violating Kyiv's sovereignty.

Under the Special Economic Measures Act (Belarus), which came into force a month following Lukashenko's most recent election, Canada has imposed 13 rounds of sanctions targeting 190 people and 71 entities.

The sanctions freeze the Canadian assets of identified individuals and companies and also involve travel bans.