6 Jan. () –
The United Nations has demanded this Friday the withdrawal of the charges against the Belarusian activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, one day after the opening of the trial against him for alleged smuggling.
“We are deeply concerned about the trial against the Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, which began on Thursday in Belarus,” said Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, before recalling that the man is exposing himself to a penalty of up to twelve years in prison.
Likewise, he has stated that two other members of the non-governmental organization Viasna, of which he is the founder, are also facing prison sentences and has stressed that the international organization “has serious concerns about the procedures in his trial.”
“The three are among the hundreds detained after the violent repression of anti-government protests in 2020. We demand that the charges against them be dropped and that they be immediately released,” Laurence has settled.
Bialiatski, his deputy, Valiantsin Stefanovich; and the coordinator of the ‘Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections’ campaign, Vladimir Labkovich; they are being tried for “acting as part of an organized group from April 4, 2016 to July 14, 2021,” according to Viasna.
The activist, who spent three years in prison, between 2011 and 2014, and was later arrested after the 2020 post-election protests, received the Nobel Peace Prize on October 7, becoming the fourth person recognized with the award while in prison. .
