A court in Belarus jailed former presidential contender Viktor Babariko for 14 years after convicting him on corruption charges that he had denied, sparking condemnation from governments across the world and the opposition leaders who are currently in exile.

Before his arrest last June, opinion polls indicated that Babariko, 57, was Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's main rival ahead of an election the opposition says was rigged to prolong the incumbent leader's rule.

In power since 1994, Lukashenko claimed a landslide election victory and a new term as president, sparking the biggest protests in Belarus's recent history. 

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Babariko was accused of taking bribes as head of Belgazprombank, the Belarusian branch of a bank belonging to Gazprom, the Russian energy company. The bank was raided last June, ahead of the election. Belarusian authorities charged seven other defendants connected to the bank, all of whom pleaded guilty.

Ahead of Tuesday's ruling, allies of Babariko said the charges against him had been fabricated to thwart his political ambitions. Several foreign diplomats, including France's ambassador to Belarus, were present at the trial in Minsk and the verdict prompted responses from around the world.

"It's an insane term for a man who decided to go into politics and became one of the leaders who woke the country from a long sleep," said Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a protest leader who fled Belarus amid a post-election crackdown. "The regime is doing everything to kill off any thought that even remotely resembles faith and hope. But for Viktor – as for thousands of innocent people in prison – what matters most is the hope in our hearts," she said.

After Babariko was barred from running and detained, Maria Kolesnikova, one of his allies, joined forces with two other women – Tsikhanouskaya and Veronika Tsepkalo – to lead the opposition campaign. Kolesnikova is now in jail, Tsepkalo has fled abroad and Tsikhanouskaya, who ran against Lukashenko and has since emerged as the opposition's most prominent figure, is trying to undermine Lukashenko while remaining in neighboring Lithuania.

The United Nations' Special Rapporteur told Belarus on Monday to immediately free some 530 jailed people who rights groups consider "political prisoners," as Washington's envoy also hinted at the possibility of further economic sanctions against Minsk.