Belarus sentences Nobel Peace laureate Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in jail

A Belarusian court on Friday sentenced one of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners, the human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, to 10 years in prison — continuing a brutal crackdown on dissent that began in response to pro-democracy protests in 2020.

Bialiatski, 60, a veteran human rights defender, founded the Viasna Human Rights Centre in 1996. He shared the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize with Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), which is working to document alleged war crimes by Russia, and the Russian human rights group Memorial, in a pointed rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

In bestowing the award in October, the Nobel Committee specifically called on Belarus to free Bialiatski, who had been arrested on charges of financial crimes widely viewed as politically motivated. His decade-long sentence marked the latest display of contempt for the West by the government of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, which Bialiatski had long criticized.

Bialiatski and at least two other Viasna activists were convicted and sentenced Friday on charges of smuggling cash into the country to finance opposition activities.

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