Reuters: EU calls for immediate release of Belarus protest leader Kolesnikova

Maria Kolesnikova, the last remaining protest leader still in Belarus, gestures making a heart shape inside the defendants' cage during her verdict hearing on charges of undermining national security, conspiring to seize power and creating an extremist group, on September 6, 2021 in Minsk. - A court in Belarus sentenced key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova -- who led mass protests against President Alexander Lukashenko last year -- to 11 years in prison on national security charges. Kolesnikova, a 39-year-old former flute player in the country's philharmonic orchestra and the only protest leader still in Belarus, has become a symbol of the protest movement in Belarus where Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been cracking down on opponents since unprecedented protests erupted after last year's elections, deemed unfair by the West.