OPINION | OTHERS SAY: In other news …

For nearly 16 weeks, the streets of Belarus have been testament to the sacrifice of its citizens and their determination to recover their stolen election. Thousands have been detained. Many have been beaten, threatened and cautioned against marching; fired from jobs; expelled from university—and yet they keep coming to protest President Alexander Lukashenko’s brazen theft of the Aug. 9 ballot, which the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya clearly won.

The protests usually grow on Sundays, and in recent weeks more than 1,000 people were arrested each Sunday. Overall, the opposition says as many as 30,000 people have been detained in various cities since the protests began.

The arrests have swept up journalists, too. According to the Association of Belarusian journalists, 26 reporters were incarcerated as of Nov. 18. Among them was chief video editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Yulia Kotskaya, charged Nov. 15 with taking part in an unsanctioned rally; she rejected the charge, saying she was covering the event as a journalist. She was sentenced to eight days in prison. Other journalists from the organization’s Belarusian service have been penalized similarly while doing their jobs.

Belarus citizens displayed their anger again on Nov. 20, when thousands came to pay last respects to Raman Bandarenka, a 31-year-old protester who died eight days earlier after masked security forces reportedly beat him. Many in the crowd outside of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Minsk raised their arms and chanted, “You are a hero!” and “Long live Belarus!” Mr. Bandarenka’s last known written words—“I’m going out”—have turned into one of the slogans of the protests.

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. should invite Ms. Tikhanovskaya to his inauguration and meet with her at the White House to show the world that the United States once again supports democracy.

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