Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been named the 2023 Anna Lindh Prize laureate

Lena Hjelm-Wallén, chairman of the Anna Lindhs Memorial Fund, which awards the prize, reasons:

- Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya took on an incomparable responsibility when she, at the risk of her own safety, after the rigged presidential election in Belarus in 2020, led the popular protests for democracy after her husband was imprisoned.

- Since then, she has tirelessly continued the fight. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is a symbol of a free and democratic Belarus. For this, she receives Anna Lindh's prize in 2023.

- The award is announced today, August 9, on the International Day of Solidarity with Belarus, 3 years after the rigged presidential election in Belarus on August 9, 2020.

Immediately after the rigged election, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya became one of the leaders of the huge popular protests in Belarus, where the people demanded freedom, democracy, respect for the principles of the rule of law and peace. The regime's response was brutal, Tsikhanouskaya was forced into exile in Lithuania, people were imprisoned and tortured and today there are more than 1500 political prisoners in Belarus.

Tsikhanouskaya continued her fight by traveling the world and call on governments and international organizations such as the UN, OSCE and the EU to take a clear stand for a democratic Belarus.

The prize will be awarded at a memorial ceremony in Katarina church in Stockholm on September 11, 20 years after Anna Lindh's death. In the church, Anna Lindh's life and political work in Sweden and the world will be highlighted through various conversations with, among others, Göran Persson, Carl Bildt, Margot Wallström and others.

Ann Linde, fm Minister for Foreign Affairs and board member of the Anna Lindh memorial fund, will have a conversation with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya about today's situation in Belarus and what can be done to support the democratic forces. The ceremony is open to the public.