BREAKBREAK,
Bialiatski and three figures from the human rights center he founded were convicted of funding anti-government protests.
A Belarusian court has sentenced Ales Bialiatski, Belarus’ foremost human rights defender and one of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, to 10 years in prison.
Bialiatski and three other figures from the Viasna Human Rights Center he founded were convicted of funding anti-government protests.
They were arrested and jailed after massive protests against a 2020 election that re-elected President Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko – in power since 1994 – has cracked down on the opposition and clamped down on independent news media.
The charges against Bialiatski and his colleagues were related to the fact that Viasna provided money to political prisoners and helped pay their legal fees.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the Belarusian opposition, denounced the “shameful injustice” of the Bialiatski trial.
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