On Friday, the Leninsky District Court in Minsk sentenced Belarusian human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Byalyatsky, to 10 years in prison. This is reported Belarusian service of Radio Liberty.
Along with Byalyatsky, his colleagues from the human rights organization Viasna were put on trial. Valentin Stefanovich was sentenced to 9 years in prison, Vladimir Labkovich – to 7 years, Dmitry Solovyov, who was tried in absentia – to 8 years.
Human rights activists have been convicted of funding protests against Alexander Lukashenko in 2020 and trafficking money. They pleaded not guilty, saying their persecution was political in nature.
Byalyatsky became a Nobel laureate last year, when he was already in a Belarusian remand center. With him, the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties and the organization “Memorial” banned by the Russian authorities became laureates. The award for Bialiatski was received by his wife Natalia Pinchuk. “Not only Ales is in prison – there are thousands of Belarusians, tens of thousands of repressed, imprisoned for their civil position. Hundreds of thousands of people are forced to flee the country simply because they wanted to live in a Democratic state. In Belarus, unfortunately, for years there has been a war against its own people, language, history and democratic values, ”said Natalia Pinchuk, delivering a solemn speech in Oslo.
Bialiatski, Stefanovich and Labkovich have been in custody since July 14, 2021. During the trial, which began in January, they were locked in a metal cage.
During the hearing, the defendants filed motions for the trial to be held in Belarusian. Judge Marina Zapasnik refused to grant the request, referring to the two state languages in Belarus. At the same time, she allowed the three to continue speaking Belarusian in court.
In 2011 Bialiatski was sentenced in Belarus to 4.5 years in a strict regime colony for tax evasion. In total, Byalyatsky was prosecuted more than 20 times – over the years of social activities and the defense of human rights.
The United States, EU states and a number of other countries, after the elections in Belarus in August 2020, did not recognize Alexander Lukashenko as their legitimately elected head of state. Sanctions were pronounced against him and his entourage. The Lukashenka regime is accused of gross human rights violations and persecution of the opposition.
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