A Trial for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Ales Bialiatski will be held in the Minsk court.
The trial for the Belarusian activist will be held on Thursday as announced by the court. The Nobel Laureate and major activist was charged with 12 years of imprisonment.
No trials
Ales Bialiatski along with his deputy Valentin Stefanovich and another activist, Vladimir Labkovich have been imprisoned since July 2021 without any trials, over charges of providing illegal financial support to rights groups.
A group which played a crucial role in the 2020 anti-government protest was found by Ales Bialiatski. The organization ‘Viasna Human Rights Centre’ was found by the 60 year old activist in the year 1996.
The protest in Belarus took place expressing opposition towards the 2020 presidential election which had announced the return of Alexander Lukashenko for his sixth term. The election was claimed to be corrupted. The anti-government protest faced repression by the government with dissidents facing violence by the government authorities.
Ales Bialiatski along with his allies were arrested following the protest. They were imprisoned on charges of smuggling cash worth around 201,000 euros and $54,000.
There were demands for release of the activists and the activists were termed as political prisoners.
“The allegations against our colleagues are linked to their human rights activity, the Viasna human rights centre’s provision of help to the victims of politically motivated persecution” said the Viasna group.
Ales Bialiatski had received the Peace Prize while he was still in prison. He along with a Russian and a Ukrainian rights group were awarded the Peace Prize.
The indirect speech
As Bialiatski was still in prison while the prize was awarded he couldn’t deliver his speech. His wife, Natalia Pinchuk made the statements on his behalf.
“He has been unable to hand it over, the situation with letters is difficult, and everything is closely monitored. But we have his statements and his thoughts, and the speech will contain them” said Bialiatski’s wife.
“He has faced strict limits on information he can send me, he can’t write anything about domestic or foreign policy” said Natalia.
“I hope that the Nobel Prize will help draw attention to Belarus and those who are in prison”
