Arrested in July 2021, Ales Bialiatski, 60, won the Nobel Peace Prize at the end of last year for his defense of human rights. He shared the award with the Russian NGO Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties.
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The activist founded and led Viasna for several years, the main human rights organization in the authoritarian country, governed since 1994 by Lukashenko.
During the 2020 demonstrations, the NGO played a crucial role in documenting repressive measures and arrests of protesters.
The other two convicted activists were accused of financing “activities that seriously violate public order”, according to the NGO. A fourth defendant, Dmitri Soloviev, tried in absentia after fleeing to Poland, was sentenced to eight years in prison. All were also sentenced to pay a fine of 70 thousand dollars.
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“Shameful injustice”
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya criticized the conviction. “We must do everything possible to fight this shameful injustice,” she wrote on Twitter.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baebock called the process a “farce” and highlighted that the defendants were convicted for their “commitment to the rights, dignity and freedom of people in Belarus”.
The Polish government considered the conviction “scandalous”.
Persecution
Bialiatski spent almost three years in prison in Belarus between 2011 and 2014, after another trial denounced as a politician.
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As of March 1, Belarus had 1.461 political prisoners, according to Viasna.
Western countries have approved several packages of sanctions against Belarus for the repression of the 2020 protests, but the regime still has the unyielding support of Russia.
Belarus agreed to serve as a rear base for Russian troops in the conflict in Ukraine. But so far the Minsk army has not directly participated in the fighting.
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(Source: AFP)
