Belarusian Nobel Laureate Ales Bialiatski imprisoned
Do you know who Ales Bialiatski is? Yes, he was one among the three Nobel Peace Prize winners of 2022. Hailing from Belarus, he is deemed as one of the country’s greatest champions of human rights. However, unfortunately, recently, a Belarusian court has sentenced him to 10 years in prison. Why? Well, he was convicted of smuggling and financing “actions grossly violating public order” as stated by several media sources.
Supporters of this 60 year old human rights activist from the Viasna group (founded by him in 1996) have stated that he was wrongfully convicted and the current authoritarian regime under President Alexander Lukashenko is trying to silence him in such a brutal way. Besides him, three other important officials from the Viasna group were also sentenced. They were Valiantsin Stefanovich who was imprisoned for 9 years, while another associate Uladzimir Labkovicz was imprisoned for 7 years. Dzmitry Salauyou on the other hand got 8 years in prison in complete isolation.
Bialiatski and his comrades were arrested and jailed in 2021 following massive street protests surrounding the widely disputed election held in 2020. In fact, they were accused of smuggling cash and other armaments into Belarus to fund the opposition. Other protestors too met with frequent police brutality, and were wrongfully arrested and imprisoned regularly. Interestingly, all of them had pleaded “not guilty.”
Natalya Pinchuk, wife of Bialiatski said that the verdict was cruel and was against all kinds of human rights work her husband has been involved in for decades. She has also shown concerns regarding her husband’s health for he is being held at a poorly maintained 19th century jail, where there is no fresh air and the cells are not well lit. Moreover, food, drinking water and healthcare facilities were also questionable.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the opposition leader who is currently exiled has also called the sentencing as “simply appalling” as per several sources. She had also added how the world must do everything in their power to fight this shameful injustice and free the men. The Nobel Committee has also condemned the verdict and called it a “tragedy” and “politically motivated”.
Sources also cite that at present there are more than 1458 political prisoners in Belarus. Alarming, isn’t it?
Now, for those who want to know a little bit more about Ales Bialiatski, he is a pro-democracy human rights activism veteran who had founded the Viasna group in response to the brutal stop of street revolts in 1996 by the Belarusian President who has ever since hold the office and continued his autocratic regime. Moreover, this is not the first time Bialiatski has been jailed. Back in 2011, he was in prison for 3 years after being convicted on tax evasion charges, which he had completely denied.