Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski was sentenced to ten years in prison

The Lenin Court in Minsk awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Belarus this Friday Ales Bialiatski to ten years in prison for smuggling and belonging to a group organized in a case related to the NGO Viasna.

Along with him, three other activists were sentenced; his deputy Valiantsin Stefanovich, campaign coordinator for “free elections” Vladimir Labkovich and Dimitri Soloviov, according to the BelTA news agency.

The prosecution asked for twelve years in prison for Bialiatski, which he did He has been in prison since July 2021which they also accused of financing anti-government protests and tax evasion.

For his part, Stefanovich was sentenced to nine years in prison, Solovov, who was tried in absence, was sentenced to eight years in prison, and Labkovich to seven. According to prosecutors, between 2013 and 2020, all of them “together with other persons who have not been identified” formed a network that allowed them to acquire more than 800,000 Belarusian rubles (about 350,000 euros) in profits.

The investigators pointed out that Bialiatski and his colleagues did not register the organization in the State Treasury and they did not submit the appropriate documents to the authorities. Thus, they were accused of embezzling around 113,000 Belarusian rubles (around 43,000 euros). However, All pleaded not guilty..

Bialiatski won the 2022 Nobel Prize together with the Russian Memorial Organization and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, becoming the fourth person to win the prize while in prison. On the same day, the Belarusian government criticized the Nobel Prize and assured that Alfred Nobel was “turning in his grave” because of such recognitions.

Numerous criticisms of the said sentence came from European institutions. “I strongly condemn the verdict of (Belarusian President Alexander) Lukashenko’s regime against Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and (NGO) Viasno”, said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, via her official Twitter profile. The German politician insisted that “they must be freed” and emphasized that “their struggle for human rights and justice in Belarus will continue.” “Attempts to silence them will not work. We will carry their votes,” he said.

For his part, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, noted on the same social network that the conviction of Bialiatski and other members of the human rights center Viasna in Belarus is a “shame.” “The accusations are false and fabricated. Lukashenko’s regime must release them and all other unjustly imprisoned democratic activists,” he added.

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, in a statement “in the strongest terms” condemned the “false” trials to which the activists were subjected, which are “another terrible example of how the Lukashenko regime tries to silence those who stand up in defense of human rights and fundamental freedoms Belarus. “Lukashenko will not get it. Their cry for freedom is heard loudly, even behind bars.”, he emphasized. Borrell also called on behalf of the EU for the “immediate and unconditional release” of more than 1,450 political prisoners in Belarus.

He said they were “brutally persecuted because they dared to oppose human rights violations in Belarus and because they rejected Russia’s war against Ukraine and Belarus’ role in this aggression.” “The EU is ready to react to the regime’s repression and human rights violations against its population”He added and assured that the community club will continue to “support all those who bravely fight for a sovereign, free, democratic, secure and prosperous Belarus.”

“Disgusted” by the sentence, wrote on her Twitter profile the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, who reminded in the message that Bialiatski is also the winner of the Sakharov Prize, an award for freedom of conscience awarded by the European Parliament.