Belarus court sentences Nobel Prize laureate to 10 years in prison

Leninsky District Court of Belarusian capital Minsk published the verdict of the defendants in the Viasna Human Rights Center case, BelTA.

The defendants, including 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, were sentenced to 7-10 years in prison. Bialiatski was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Viasna human rights center was established in April 1996 during the political crisis, which arose as a result of the confrontation of the Belarusian Supreme Council and the Constitutional Court with President Alexander Lukashenko.

The organization was headquartered in Minsk and controlled several regional offices. But in March 2021 it was investigated for “protest financing” after the 2020 presidential election. As part of the investigation, searches were conducted in the apartments of the members of the organization and in the offices of the regional departments of the center. The employees of Viasna were summoned for questioning, and later the Telegram account of the organization was recognized as extremist.

Ales Bialiatski, 60, was one of the founders of Viasna Human Rights Center and continued to be the president of the center for many years. After the 2020 protests, he was arrested within the criminal case of “organizing protests” and “tax evasion.” Amnesty International recognized Bialiatski as a prisoner of conscience. Last year, the Nobel Committee noted that his work shows the importance of civil society for peace and democracy.

Ales Bialiatski received the Nobel Peace Prize last October, together with the Russian “Memorial”—  was recognized foreign agent and eliminated in Russia—and the Ukrainian “Civil Liberties Center.” The Nobel Committee had explained its aforesaid selection by desiring to pay tribute to three outstanding fighters for human rights, democracy, and peaceful coexistence in neighboring countries—Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.