Ales Bialiatski, a prominent human rights advocate in Belarus and one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday.
Along with three other top members of the Viasna human rights centre that he founded, he was found guilty of financing anti-government protests and jailed after massive protests following the 2020 presidential election that resulted in authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s re-election.
Lukashenko, who has been in office since 1994, has suppressed opposition and cracked down on independent news media. The 2020 protests persisted for several months, the largest wave of protest to hit Belarus, and authorities took harsh action. Over 35,000 people were arrested, and thousands were beaten by police.
Bialiatski and his colleagues were charged with providing money to political prisoners and helping pay their legal fees through Viasna, which was seen as illegal by the Belarusian government.
The Nobel laureate was honoured by the Nobel committee in Oslo in October 2022 along with the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties.
Bialiatski, who has been an advocate for democracy in Belarus since the 1980s, previously served a prison sentence between 2011 and 2014 for tax evasion, which his supporters claimed were politically motivated.
In his final address to the court, Bialiatski urged the authorities to “stop the civil war in Belarus” and accused the investigators of being tasked with destroying Viasna and depriving human rights advocates of freedom at any cost.
The sentencing of Bialiatski and the Viasna members has been condemned internationally, with calls for their release. Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has been in exile since the 2020 election, described the verdict as “appalling.”
Secretary General Berit Lindeman of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee stated that the trial showed how Lukashenko’s regime punishes human rights defenders for standing up against oppression and injustice.
The sentencing of Bialiatski is notable in that he is the fourth person in the 121-year history of the Nobel Prizes to receive the award while in prison or detention.
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