Ten years in prison for Belarusian pro-democracy activist
Ales Bialiatski, the Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a Belarusian court
Mr. Bialiatski, a 60-year-old human rights activist, appeared in court along with two other members of the Viasna human rights group
He was accused of financing a protest group and his sentence is close to the maximum punishment for such a crime. Mr. Bialiatski has denied this accusation. During the 2020 unrest in Belarus, he provided legal and financial assistance to protesters
Recently, Belarus has held numerous trials for political prisoners, journalists, and opposition figures, who have been sentenced to long prison terms
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled Belarusian opposition leader, described the trial as a disgraceful injustice