LONDON — Ales Bialiatski, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and a champion of human rights, was found guilty of funding demonstrations and given a 10-year prison term on Friday by a court in Belarus, which was denounced by the US and the EU as a "sham" trial.
The 60-year-old Bialiatski received the Nobel Peace Prize in October for his efforts to advance democracy and human rights in a nation where President Alexander Lukashenko, a steadfast ally of Russia, has ruled with an iron fist for nearly 30 years, brutally imprisoning and expelling his opponents.
Bialiatski, who co-founded the human rights organization Viasna (Spring), was seen in the crowded Minsk court looking solemn with his hands bound behind his back as he and his co-defendants observed the proceedings from a cage in the courtroom.
Three co-defendants and Bialiatski, who was apprehended in 2021, were accused of smuggling cash and funding demonstrations. The court had sentenced all of the men to lengthy prison terms, including a decade in jail for Bialiatski, according to the official news agency of Belarus, Belta. He disputed the accusations and claimed they were made for political reasons.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled leader of the Belarusian opposition, claimed that the court's decision was "appalling" and that Bialiatski and the other three activists had been wrongfully convicted.
She wrote on Twitter, "We must do everything to fight against this shameful injustice & free them.
Valentin Stefanovich, who received a nine-year sentence, Vladimir Labkovich, who received a seven-year sentence, and Dmitry Solovyov, who was given an eight-year sentence but was not present in court, were the other three men found guilty.
The men's immediate release was demanded on Twitter by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who called the court decision a "sham" and "an attempt to suppress democracy and human rights in Belarus."
The head of foreign policy for the EU, Josep Borrell, characterized their trials as an effort to silence them, a strategy he predicted would fail.
"Lukashenko won't be successful. Even from behind bars, they can be heard calling for freedom," added Borrell in a statement.
The trial was referred to as "a farce" by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Baerbock posted on Twitter, "The Minsk regime is fighting civil society with violence and imprisonment." It "is as much a daily disgrace," she claimed, as Lukashenka's backing for Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, referred to Bialiatski's conviction as a "tragedy" that was motivated by politics.
"The case and the verdict against him are tragic for him as an individual. But it also demonstrates that Belarus' government does not respect the opposition or free speech. In an Oslo interview, she stated.
The U.N. body was troubled by the trial and concerned about "the lack of fair trial proceedings and access to an independent judiciary in Belarus," according to Ravina Shamdasani, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson, who spoke at a briefing in Geneva.
Because of this, she claimed, human rights advocates ran the risk of being charged with a crime for their legal work.
Without going into further detail, Shamdasani stated that at least 1,446 people, including 10 children, would still be in detention at the end of 2022.
One of the best-known of the hundreds of Belarusians who were imprisoned during a crackdown on months of anti-government protests that began in the summer of 2020 and continued into 2021 was Bialiatski, a dissident from the Soviet era as well.
His co-founded organization, Viasna, played a key role in providing those who were imprisoned with legal and financial support.
After Lukashenko was named the winner of the 2020 presidential election, which the opposition and Western nations claimed was fraudulent, there were large-scale protests.