Bialiatski, who was co-awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, founded Viasna, the authoritarian country’s most prominent rights group, in 1996
Jailed Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski went on trial in Minsk on Thursday in what supporters see as a bid to clamp down on Viasna, Belarus’s top rights group which he founded. Bialiatski, who was co-awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, founded Viasna (Spring), the authoritarian country’s most prominent rights group, in 1996.
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Bialiatski and his associates Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich could be seen in the defendants’ cage in the courtroom at the start of the hearing, images released by Russian news agency RIA Novosti showed.
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Grey-haired Bialiatski was sitting on a bench inside the cage wearing a black hoodie, green trousers and sneakers.
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The two other defendants sat on either side of a bench behind him, looking solemn in the cage guarded by four armed policemen.
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Bialiatski, 60, and his associates were jailed after large-scale demonstrations against the regime in 2020, when authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in elections deemed fraudulent by the international community.
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Backed by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko cracked down on the opposition movement, jailing his critics or pushing them into exile.
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The high-profile trial will be followed by those of independent journalists and Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the leader of the opposition movement who lives in exile.
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Bialiatski, Stefanovich and Labkovich have been in detention since July 2021.
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They were initially accused of tax evasion.
Source : Deccan Herald
