Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya says she has not had any contact or cooperated with Olga Karach, a Belarusian activist who has been refused asylum in Lithuania last week.
“I have never cooperated with Olga Karach,” Tsikhanouskaya told reporters on Wednesday after meeting with Lithuanian Parliament Speaker Viktorija Čmilyte-Nielsen. “We have never communicated.”
Tsikhanouskaya says she is aware of Karach’s situation, adding, however, that she trusts the Lithuanian authorities.
Last week, Lithuania’s Migration Department refused to grant asylum to Karach quoting threats to national security. The decision was based on the State Security Department’s report that said Karach had links with Russian intelligence.
However, the Migration Department at the same time granted the Belarusian activist a temporary residence permit on humanitarian grounds. It can be extended.
Speaking earlier this week, Karach confirmed that she had been warned by State Security Department officers last spring about her contacts with Russian intelligence, but she refrained to elaborate.
The activist has been receiving residence permits in Lithuania since 2014 and applied for asylum last year.
Karach leads the NGO Our House, which says it monitors human rights violations in Belarus and provides humanitarian, psychological and other assistance to Belarusians both in their homeland and in Lithuania.
The Belarusian government declared the organisation extremist in 2022, while Karach was put on the “terrorist list” by the Belarusian KGB in 2021.
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