Minsk ∙ Prominent Belarusian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatsky (60) was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The crime is providing financial and legal support to anti-government protests. Three other leaders of the human rights movement ‘Viasna’ founded by Bialiatsky were also among those convicted.
Bialiatsky and other leaders were arrested during the 2020 national uprising against President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year while in prison. Bialiatsi and three other accused were brought into the courtroom in an iron cage.
The leader of the opposition party in exile, Svetlana Sikhanovskaya, responded by saying that the sentence was shocking and that she would give Bialiatsky all the support he needs to fight against injustice. Ales Bialiatsky, who is also a lawyer, was one of the leaders of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus during the Soviet period in the mid-1980s.
English summary: Belarusian court jails Nobel Peace Prize winner Bialiatski for 10 years
