Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Ales Bjaljacki was sentenced yesterday to ten years in prison by a court in his native Belarus, which found him guilty of financing protests in a process the European Union dismissed as "sham".
Bjaljacki (60) received the Nobel Prize in 2022 for his work promoting human rights and democracy in a country that President Aleksandar Lukashenko has ruled with a firm hand for almost 30 years, dealing fiercely with dissenters.
Bjaljacki, one of the founders of the group "Vyasna" (spring), was arrested in 2021, and three other defendants are accused of financing protests and money laundering. Belarus' state news agency Belta confirmed that the court handed down lengthy prison terms to all the men, including a decade in prison for Bialjacki.
He rejected all the charges against him, saying they were politically motivated. In his last address to the court, Bjaljacki called on the authorities to "stop the civil war in Belarus."
Belarusian opposition leader in exile Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said that Bialjacki and three other activists were unjustly convicted and described the court's decision as "astounding".
"We must do everything to fight this shameful injustice and set them free," she wrote on Twitter.
Valentin Stefanovič was sentenced to nine years, Vladimir Labkovic to seven, and Dmitry Solovyov to eight in absentia.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said they were being subjected to "mock trials" in an attempt to silence them, a tactic he said would not work.
"Lukashenko will not succeed. Their call for freedom is loud, even behind bars," Borel said in a statement, reported by Reuters.
German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock described the trial as a "farce".
"The regime in Minsk is fighting civil society with violence and imprisonment. It is shamefully the same as Lukashenko's support for Putin's war," she wrote on Twitter.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the US condemns the verdict against Ales Bjaljack.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairperson of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, assessed that the declaration of Bjaljacki's guilt was a politically motivated "tragedy".
"This case, the verdict against him, is a tragedy for him personally. But it also shows that the regime in Belarus does not tolerate freedom of expression and opposition".
The regime in Minsk fights civil society with violence and imprisonment. It is shamefully the same as Lukashenko's support for Putin's war
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a briefing in Geneva that the UN body was disturbed by the trial and concerned about "the lack of fair process and access to an independent judiciary in Belarus."
This, she said, exposes human rights defenders to the risk of prosecution for their legitimate activities.
Memorial, a prominent Russian human rights group that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the Bialjak and Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties last year, condemned the sentence as "undisguised illegal retaliation for their human rights activities as part of a campaign of terror against civil society and the entire people of Belarus." .
Oleg Orlov, one of the founders of the Memorial, tried to travel to Minsk yesterday to support Byaljacki, but was prevented from boarding the plane. Representatives of the airline told him that the Belarusian authorities had banned him from entering the country, AP reported. "Crimes are better committed without witnesses," said Orlov.
"The highest level of repression in Europe"
Volodymyr Javorski from the Center for Civil Liberties told AP that Ukrainian human rights activists express solidarity with Bieljacki and demand his release.
"This verdict shows that the highest level of repression in Europe is in Belarus," said Javorski.
"Ukraine is currently resisting the totalitarian model that the Kremlin is trying to impose on the entire former Soviet space."
Bialjacki, who was also a Soviet-era dissident, was one of the most prominent of hundreds of Belarusians jailed during a crackdown on months of anti-government protests that erupted in the summer of 2020 and continued into 2021. More than 35.000 people have been arrested and thousands more by police. beaten during demonstrations, the largest ever held in the country.
"Vyasna", an organization of which he is one of the founders, played a leading role in providing legal and financial assistance to prisoners.
Ukraine is currently resisting the totalitarian model that the Kremlin is trying to impose on the entire former Soviet space
Mass demonstrations took place after Lukashenko was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, which the opposition and Western countries said was rigged.
Belarus stands out in its support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while other countries in the region do not publicly support Moscow.
Bjaljacki is the fourth person in the 121-year history of the Nobel Prize to receive it while in prison or detention.
The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a non-governmental human rights organization, said it was "shocked by the cynicism" of the verdict. The decision of the Belarusian court was also condemned by the Council of Europe.
Bjaljacki graduated in Russian and Belarusian philology at the State University in Gomel in 1984. At first he worked as a teacher and later he studied Belarusian literature and worked as a museum director.
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