Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya gave a statement to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, calling for the international community to put pressure on the Belarussian government, on Tuesday morning, speaking from Strasbourg during an online meeting.

"Opposition figures are held under trumped-up charges, intimidated, and threatened or expelled from the country altogether. Only yesterday, one of the leaders of peaceful protest Maria Kolesnikova was kidnapped. Anton Rodnenkov and Ivan Kravtsov were also kidnapped. All of them were the members of the team of Viktor Babariko who is in jail simply for daring to run for president. My husband, Sergei Tikhanovskaya, is in jail for the same reason," she said. "This should not be the norm in Europe. This can't be the norm in the civilised world."

She added, ''My country, my nation, my people now need help. We need international pressure on this regime, on one individual desperately lean on to power.'

Belarus has been swept by anti-government protests following the disputed presidential election that saw incumbent president Aleksander Lukashenko re-elected for a sixth term. On August 19 the European Union announced sanctions against "a substantial number of individuals responsible for violence, repression, and election fraud" in Belarus.