The political scientist assessed the sentence to the Nobel laureate Belyatsky in Belarus: “A worthy man”

In the Republic, it was decided to liquidate the human rights movement as such in the bud

In Belarus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, human rights activist Ales Byalyatsky was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A court in Minsk found him guilty of smuggling. Byalyatsky, 60, has been involved in human rights activities since the late 1980s.

In 1996, Byalyatsky created the Viasna-96 human rights organization (now the unregistered Viasna Human Rights Center), which he still chairs. The Supreme Court of Belarus liquidated Vesna in 2003.

After Viasna lost its state registration, human rights activists repeatedly made attempts to register the center again, but they were unsuccessful. And now they were accused of leading the organization without registering it as a taxpayer and without submitting documents to the tax office.

According to the prosecutor’s office of Belarus, Ales Byalyatsky, together with his colleagues Vladimir Labkovich, Valentin Stefanovich and Dmitry Solovyov, “as part of an organized group” cashed out money in the amount of 201 thousand euros and 54 thousand dollars received from foreign structures and foundations to finance the human rights center “Spring “.

His colleagues were also sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Stefanovich – by nine, Solovyov – by eight, Labkovich – by seven years. The case was initiated under the articles “Smuggling” and “Organization and preparation of actions grossly violating public order, or active participation in them.” Human rights activists were accused of tax evasion in the amount of more than 45 thousand dollars.

Ales Bialiatski was detained in July 2021 and recognized as a political prisoner. In 2022, he received the Nobel Peace Prize together with the organization Memorial (it was recognized in Russia as an NGO-foreign agent and liquidated by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation) and the Center for Civil Liberties. Prior to that, he was nominated for this award five times. Byalyatsky became the laureate of many other awards for human rights work.

Especially for MK, political scientist Andrey Suzdaltsev commented on the sentence to Byalyatsky:

– In Belarus, since 2020, almost all human rights organizations, organizations associated with civil society, political parties and movements, independent publications have disappeared. All of them were destroyed and closed. Most of the activists went abroad – according to expert estimates, about a million people. This is a lot, considering that another one and a half million Belarusians are constantly abroad in search of work. That is, in recent years the Republic has lost almost 30% of the population. The people are running away.

Why didn’t Bialiatski leave?

Apparently, he just didn’t make it. He is an old human rights activist, one of the founders of the largest Belarusian human rights structures, including the organization “Spring”. It has long been well known in the West. Of course, all these structures are oriented towards the West. He was charged not with human rights activity itself, but with tax evasion, which he did not pay while receiving various foreign grants. Now he was given 10 years, and there is no doubt that he will not be released. Of course, tax evasion is just an excuse. It was simply necessary to eliminate the human rights movement in Belarus as such.

– He’s a Nobel laureate. This makes the verdict rather defiant.

– Of course, he is a worthy, well-deserved person, but it is no secret that the awarding of Nobel Prizes has been very politicized lately. Apparently, there was a calculation to somehow warm up opposition sentiments in Belarus. But it didn’t lead to anything. This verdict will not affect the situation in Belarus in any way. Any activity against Lukashenka is considered a criminal offense there. It is impossible to defend political prisoners: whoever defends them will also go to jail. Almost all of the opposition is abroad. This will also not affect the external position of the country, since Belarus has already been under sanctions for a long time. Therefore, I do not see any threats to the regime.