A court on Tuesday jailed Belarus government critic Sergei Tsikhanousky for 18 years, state news agency Belta reported, at the conclusion of a trial conducted behind closed doors.

Tikhanovsky's wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was a political novice at the time of his arrest, replaced him as an election candidate and claims to be the rightful winner of the vote.

She denounced the verdict. "The dictator publicly takes revenge on his strongest opponents," she tweeted, immediately after the sentence was announced. 

"While hiding the political prisoners in closed trials, he hopes to continue repressions in silence. But the whole world watches. We won't stop," she added in English.