A court in Belarus sentenced 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison on Friday, Russian state news agency TASS reported. The verdict could spark strong protests from Western human rights groups.
Bialiatski, a democratic activist and founder of the human rights group Viasna, which provided legal and financial assistance to protesters during the wave of unrest in Belarus in 2020, was convicted of financing protests and tax evasion.
He himself stated that he was being persecuted for political reasons.
According to the exiled leader of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Chikhanutskaya, together with Byalyatsky, Valentin Stefanovich was sentenced to nine years in prison, and Vladimir Lambkovich to seven years in prison.
Human rights groups say there are about 1,500 political prisoners in Belarus, many of whom have been arrested since the crackdown on 2020 protests that erupted after longtime President Alexander Lukashenko declared himself re-elected in Western polls and the Belarusian opposition said he was a fraud.
Source: Reuters.
Source: Kathimerini
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