Ales Bialiatski, Nobel laureate sentenced prison for 10 years in Belarus

Ales Bialiatski sentenced prison for 10 years

Ales Bialiatski, a leading defender of human rights in Belarus and a candidate for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, was given a 10-year prison term in Minsk, the Capital of Belarus.

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Ales Bialiatski sentenced prison: Key Points

• Ales Bialiatski and three other key members of the Viasna human rights organisation he created were found guilty of funding rallies against the government.
• After widespread protests over a 2020 election that delivered autocratic President Aleksandr Lukashenko a second term in office, they were detained and imprisoned.
• Since taking government in 1994, Lukashenko has repressed dissent and cracked down on independent media.
• The strongest wave of protests to ever hit Belarus continued for several months under the 2020 movement, and the government responded harshly.
• At than 35,000 individuals were detained, and police beat thousands of them.
• The accusations against Bialiatski and his associates stemmed from Viasna giving money to political prisoners and supporting their legal expenses.

The Nobel committee honoured Bialiatski in Oslo in October, along with the Russian and Ukrainian human rights organisations Memorial and Center for Civil Liberties. Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Memorial, tried to fly to Minsk to support Bialiatski, but was refused boarding because Belarus had prohibited him from entering the country, according to airline representatives.