A Belarus court on Friday sentenced pro-democracy activist Ales Bialiatski, one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, to 10 years in prison, his human rights organization reported.
The NGO Viasna specified that two other activists tried together with Bialiatski, Valentin Stefanovitch and Vladimir Labkovitch, received sentences of nine and seven years in prison, respectively.
All three were jailed following historic demonstrations against the controversial 2020 re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Bialiatski, 60, founder of Viasna in 1996, and the other two activists were accused of financing “activities that seriously violate public order,” according to the NGO. Viasna (meaning spring), is a leading human rights organization that documents and protests against the authorities’ use of torture against political prisoners.
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tijanóvskaya called the sentence a “shameful injustice”.
“We must do everything possible to fight against this shameful injustice,” Tijanóvskaya declared on Twitter.
Bialiatski was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his defense of human rights, along with the Russian Memorial organization and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties.
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