Belarus court Jail Noble Winner: A court in Belarus on Friday (March 3) sentenced 2022 Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison. His rights group Viasana gave this information by tweeting.
The pro-democracy activist and three other members of the Viasna Human Rights Center were convicted of money laundering and financing opposition protests in the country.
Ales Baliatsky and others sentenced
The rights center said on its website that Nobel laureate Ales Baliatsky was given a 10-year sentence, while Valentin Stefanovich, deputy chairman of Viasna Group, was given a nine-year sentence. Viasna said the campaign’s coordinator Uladzimir Lubkowicz was given a seven-year sentence, while human rights defender Dmitri Salăuș was given an eight-year sentence.
Opposition leader criticized the decision
Belarus’ exiled opposition leader Svetlana Sikhanouskaya criticized the sentencing of Nobel laureate Ales Baliatsky, saying 60-year-old Baliatsky and his co-defendants were sentenced in a sham trial. He said that we should do everything to fight against this shameful injustice and to free them.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Bierbock said the prison sentence was a humiliation and an example of Belarus’ violence against civil rights. Barebock dismissed the proceedings as a farce. The defenders were only being punished for years of fighting for the rights, dignity and freedom of the people of Belarus.
The Belarusian court sentenced Ales Bialiatski, the Viasna chairman and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, to 10 years in prison pic.twitter.com/3uJwuWYdt5
— Viasna (@viasna96) March 3, 2023
Nobel for human rights work
According to rights groups, some 1,500 people are in prison in Belarus for political reasons. Dozens of people have been behind bars since the crackdown on 2020 protests that erupted after strongman Alexander Lukashenko declared himself president amid accusations of fraud from his opponents and the West.
Baliatsky was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October for his work on human rights and democracy. He shared it with Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties.
