Ales Bialiatski sentenced prison for 10 years: Ales Bialiatski, a leading human rights defender in Belarus and a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, was sentenced to ten years in prison in Minsk, Belarus’s capital.
March 2023 Current Affairs Quiz
Ales Bialiatski sentenced prison: Key Points
- Ales Bialiatski and three other key members of the Viasna human rights organisation he created were found guilty of funding rallies against the government.
- After widespread protests over a 2020 election that delivered autocratic President Aleksandr Lukashenko a second term in office, they were detained and imprisoned.
- Since taking government in 1994, Lukashenko has repressed dissent and cracked down on independent media.
- The strongest wave of protests in Belarus history raged on for several months as part of the 2020 movement, and the government reacted harshly.
- At than 35,000 individuals were detained, and police beat thousands of them.
- The accusations against Bialiatski and his associates stemmed from Viasna giving money to political prisoners and supporting their legal expenses.
The Nobel committee honoured Bialiatski in Oslo in October, along with the Russian and Ukrainian human rights organisations Memorial and Center for Civil Liberties. Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Memorial, tried to fly to Minsk to support Bialiatski, but was refused boarding because Belarus had prohibited him from entering the country, according to airline representatives.
