A court in Belarus has sentenced on Friday Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, 60 , a veteran of the human rights movement in Belarus, co- founder of the organisation Viasna human rights group , also a Soviet-era dissident ,to 10 years in prison, convicting him for “actions grossly violating public order.” He was arrested in 2021 following massive street protests over widely disputed elections the previous year. Bialiatski was one of three winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. In awarding the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to Mr Bialiatski, Berit Reiss-Anderson, head of the Norwegian Nobel committee, said the Belarusian government had “for years tried to silence him”. Bialiatski denied the charges against him, calling them politically motivated.
The other three men convicted on Friday were Valentin Stefanovich, sentenced to nine years, Vladimir Labkovich, who got seven years, and Dmitry Solovyov, who received eight years but was not present in the court. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a briefing in Geneva that the United Nations body was disturbed by the trial . There are currently 1,458 political prisoners in Belarus, a fact not recognised by the authorities.
