Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Byalyatski has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in his home country, activists reported Friday. Byalyatski is a co-founder of the human rights organization Vyazna, which documents the actions of the Belarusian authorities against democracy activists.
Byalyatski was found guilty of organized smuggling and financing of public unrest, state news agency Belta reported. The public prosecutor had demanded twelve years in prison. Byalyatski was awarded the Nobel Prize last year and has been in prison since 2021. Byaljazki rejects the allegations, describing them as politically motivated.
Also convicted co-defendants
Together with the 60-year-old, activists Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich were sentenced to nine and seven years in prison respectively. Another civil rights activist was sentenced to a long prison term in absentia.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya accuses the regime of organizing the trial of human rights defenders. “We must do everything we can to fight and free this shameful injustice,” she wrote on Twitter (see below).
Human rights activists exposed torture
Incumbent Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election. The election was not recognized internationally. Mass protests broke out in the country, which the regime violently crushed. The center “Vyazna”, founded by Byaljazki in 1996, recorded numerous cases of torture and other human rights violations by the police. It helped protesters find and pay lawyers.
As a result, “Vyazna” was also targeted by the authorities. In July 2021, the head of Byalyatsky and other employees of the Human Rights Center were arrested after house searches. Byalyatski was also unable to receive the Nobel Prize awarded to him in 2022. First, the doctor of literature was arrested for alleged tax evasion. The charges were later changed. Internationally, Byalyatski is considered a political prisoner.
Source: Krone
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