Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on the international community on Friday to do more to help political prisoners in her country.
"We have to take measures to prevent further tragedies. The torture of people in prison must stop," she said in Vilnius, the Baltic News Service (BNS) reported. Her remarks followed the death in custody of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny last month.
According to Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in exile, five political prisoners have died in Belarusian jails in recent years. She predicted the figure would rise. "People in prisons are being killed slowly," she said.
The activist and her associates earlier mounted a protest in front of the Belarusian embassy in the Lithuanian capital to draw attention to their fellow activists in prison.
The Belarusian opposition estimates that the country is holding around 1,500 political prisoners, including Sergei Tikhanovsky, Tsikhanouskaya's husband. "It has been a year since I last heard from my husband. Since then it has been silent," she said.
Nothing had been heard from other well-known opposition figures like Viktar Babaryka and Maria Kolesnikova for the past year.
Tikhanovsky planned to contest the August 2020 presidential elections but was arrested months before the vote. His wife took his place and is thought by many to have been the true winner in the elections, which were seen as fraudulent.
Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko was instead confirmed in office.
