In awarding the prize in October, the Nobel committee specifically called on Belarus to free Beliatsky, who had been arrested on charges of financial crimes widely seen as politically motivated. His decade-long sentence marked the latest display of contempt for the West by the government of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, whom Bialyatsky has long criticized.
Beliatsky and at least two other Viasana activists were indicted and sentenced on Friday on charges of smuggling cash into the country to finance opposition activities. Viasna’s vice-president, Valentsyn Stefanovich, was sentenced to nine years in prison, and the group’s lawyer, Uldzimir Labkovich, received seven years.
The case was widely seen as political retribution for years of opposition to Lukashenko, who has repeatedly accused his opponents and non-governmental organizations of accepting financial support from the West. All three of the human rights campaigners had pleaded not guilty on Friday.
Bialitsky was jailed in 2020 following mass street protests that erupted after Lukashenko claimed victory in the August 2020 presidential election with 80 percent of the vote, a result widely suspected of fraud. was taken as
Since then, Lukashenko, who presided over the former Soviet state for nearly three decades, has unleashed a shocking wave of repression against protesters. Over 35,000 were arrested, while thousands were beaten by the police. Rights groups also documented cases of torture. Many opposition figures were imprisoned or forced to flee and live in exile.
The country’s opposition leader in exile Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who claimed victory in the 2020 presidential election, called the sentence of Baliatsky and his allies “horrific”.
“Ales has dedicated his life to fighting against tyranny. He is a true hero of Belarus and will be honored long after the dictator is forgotten,” Takhanovskaya tweeted.
When announcing the Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee wrote: “Ales Bialyatsky was one of the initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s. He devoted his life to promoting democracy and peaceful development in his country.” has dedicated.”
The Committee noted that Baliatsky had been previously arrested and detained from 2011 to 2014, and was imprisoned at the time the award was announced. “He is still being held in custody without trial,” the committee wrote. “Despite tremendous personal hardship, Mr. Beliatsky has not retreated an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus.”
In his acceptance speech, delivered by his wife, Natalia Pinchuk, Baliatsky said: “Thousands of people are currently behind bars in Belarus for political reasons, and they are all my brothers and sisters. No one can quench the people’s thirst for freedom.” Can stop. In my homeland, the whole of Belarus is in prison. Journalists, political scientists, trade union leaders are in prison, among them I have many acquaintances and friends.
He said, “The courts work like a conveyor belt, convicts are taken to penal colonies, and new waves of political prisoners take their place. This award is dedicated to all my human rights defender friends, all civil activists, tens of thousands of Belarusians who have been beaten, tortured, arrested, jailed. This award belongs to the millions of Belarusian citizens who took action on the streets and online to defend their civil rights. This comes amid a dramatic situation and struggle for human rights in the country exposes.
In his final address to the court, Baliatsky accused the investigators of following orders and trying to shut down Viasana’s work. He urged the authorities to “stop the civil war in Belarus”.
According to Viasna, there are 1,458 political prisoners in Belarus. Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, has been sanctioned internationally for political repression in Belarus, as well as his role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for which Belarus served as a launchpad for Russian troops.