The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize from Belarus, Els Bialiatsky, was sentenced today (Friday) by a court in Minsk to ten years in prison. The Belarusian opposition stated: “All political prisoners must be released without delay.”
The leader of the Belarusian opposition called the sentencing of Bialiatsky and other activists in the same trial as “appalling”. She also stated that “we must do everything to fight against this shameful injustice and free them.”
The German Foreign Minister said that the charges and the trial against Bialiatsky and his co-accused are a “big farce” and added that they are being tried “due to their years-long struggle for the rights, dignity and freedom of the people of Belarus. The regime in Minsk fights civil society with violence. This is a daily disgrace no less than Lukashenko’s support for Putin.” .
Bialiatsky, a pro-democracy activist, has been documenting human rights violations in Belarus since the 1980s. He founded his organization in 1996 after a referendum that united the powers of the president and his close Putin ally, President Alexander Lukashenko. The activist was arrested in 2020 amid widespread protests against Lukashenko’s regime, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.