Thousands of people have been arrested since the anti-government protests began in Belarus in 2020. The activist Ales Byaljazki keeps a record of this with his organization Vjasna. Now it has to go to prison itself - allegedly for completely different reasons.
The imprisoned Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Byalyatski has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. The 60-year-old was convicted in Minsk for alleged financial crimes, according to the state news agency Belta. Byalyatsky is a co-founder of the human rights organization Vyazna, which keeps records of the actions of the Belarusian authorities against democracy activists. He had previously served several years in prison.
The prosecution had even called for twelve years in prison. In addition to the 60-year-old, three other Belarusian civil rights activists were sentenced to long prison terms, one of them in absentia.
Byaljazki himself speaks of a politically motivated process. His lawyer is barred from divulging any information about the case. Vyazna said on Twitter that the judge refused to conduct the trial in Belarusian instead of Russian. The court rejected Byaljazki's request for a translator. "The allegations against our colleagues are related to their human rights activity, the assistance of the Vyazna Human Rights Center to the victims of politically motivated persecution."
Byalyatski was awarded the Nobel Prize in October together with the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties. His organization Vyazna has provided financial and legal support to hundreds of people jailed during the anti-Lukashenko protests. The protests ignited in the summer of 2020, when Lukashenko, who had ruled autocratically since 1994, claimed victory in the presidential election. At the time, hundreds of thousands protested against his government.
Lawyers estimate that around 50,000 people have been arrested since 2020 for taking part in the protests or criticizing the government. There are still around 1,500 political prisoners in Belarusian prisons.
